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Evgenia Medvedeva and Alina Zagitova celebrate their success in South Korea.
Alina Zagitova and Evgenia Medvedeva mesmerised audiences with elite figure skating routines last week.
Medvedeva's brilliance is no surprise - she had been dominating the ice rink for years.
But Zagitova is the new kid on the block.The teenaged Russians both won medals at the 2018 Winter Olympic games in Pyeongchang.
Their individual successes in South Korea give a clue as to what's in store in the years to come - the start of great rivalry in sport.
Here's what we know so far.
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Evgenia Medvedeva is a highly-decorated figure skater from Russia. She is a two-time European champion, a two-time world champion, and two-time Winter Olympic silver medalist — at 18 years old.
But Medvedeva has a rival. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Alina Zagitova.
Like Medvedeva, Zagitova is an elite figure skater from Russia. She is a European champion, a Winter Olympic gold medalist, and she is just 15 years old.
Despite their ages, the Russian rivals are considered the greatest talents in their sport. In Medvedeva's case, she may well be the greatest of all time.
Source: Time.
Medvedeva was far too good for the junior level athletes and, by 2016, found she was too good for the seniors. She won the world championship — the most prestigious figure skating title — in 2016 and 2017.
Medvedeva's strengths include athleticism, artistry on the ice, and storytelling. For example, a fascination with death is a theme in many of Medvedeva's routines — and she once performed to audio clips of a 9/11 news broadcast.
Source: Vox.
Zagitova is the new kid on the block. But when she won the European Championship in January, she became the first skater to topple Medvedeva in two years. Was this an omen for the 2018 Winter Olympics?
Heading into the Pyeongchang games, Medvedeva described her rink rivalry with Zagitova as a battlefield. "When we take the ice this is sport and we must fight," she said. "This is sport, this is war."
Source: NBC Olympics.
But one world record performance and one stunning routine was not enough to defeat Zagitova, who broke Medvedeva's world record in the short program and matched her free skate score. The 15-year-old won gold.
Despite the rivalry, Medvedeva insists she is friends with Zagitova. "We are humans, we communicate as usual, we are friends, we are girls, young girls. We can talk about everything to each other."
Source: NBC Olympics.
Something tells us this is not the last time we see Zagitova and Medvedeva do battle.
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