Today at 10:00 a.m. ET the ladies figure skating short singles competition will get underway at the 2014 Olympic Games from Sochi, Russia, and native 15-year-old Yulia Lipnitskaya is considered a dark horse to become one of these Games' breakout stars. Live stream the competition and Lipnitskaya's quest for free by clicking this link.
Despite Lipnitskaya's young age, from the time she began skating a former coach, Elena Legkovets, said she stood out from her peers. "I remember when I saw this girl at her casting. I was struck by her confident look, fearlessness, and thought, 'if only I can train her.' So I was lucky.
"Almost from the first day it became clear that she was not like the others. She stood out for her brightness, activity and extraordinary seriousness," Liptnitskaya's mother said. "Off the rink, she could joke, but when she stepped on the ice, there left no trace of laughter. Figure skating she always treated as to a job. I would say too seriously and responsibly."
Despite her prodigious talent, Lipnitskaya battles her weight on a sometimes-daily basis. When she is struggling most to shed some pounds, she's forced to eat only a powder called "Squeeze" which gives her energy.
Her current coach, Etery Tutberidze, told the Daily Mail about Lipnitskaya's sacrifice. "She struggles with it... in my work, I never faced such cases - she just cannot eat at all. And I'm very sorry that she had to endure so much, but I cannot help it."
Winning a gold won't be easy though, with stiff competition expected to come from Olympic veteran Kim Yu-Na from Korea. The 23-year-old had a truly dominant two-year stretch of winning all but one event she entered, culminating in a gold medal at the Vancouver Olympic Games. After taking a break in 2011, she returned to the World Championships in 2013 and put up marks that were second only to the records she set in Vancouver.
Lipnitskaya will have much of the world pulling for her, but Yu-Na is without question the favorite to earn the coveted gold.
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