February 9, 2014.

Russia Wins First Gold Medal in Team Figure Skating Competition

It appeared to Winston that a long time passed before he answered. For a moment he seemed even to have been deprived of the power of speech. His tongue worked soundlessly, forming the opening syllables first of one word, then of the other, over and over again. Until he had said it, he did not know which word he was going to say. "No," he said finally.

SOCHI, Russia----Russia won its first gold medal of the 2014 Winter Games Sunday night in a new team figure skating competition that showed it has deepened its talent bench two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union—and that it can score an important victory at its own Olympics.

"You did well to tell me," said O’Brien. "It is necessary for us to know everything."

Russian President Vladimir Putin was on hand to soak in the win, cheering from the stands for 15 year-old Yulia Lipnitskaya, a rising star who swept the women's singles portion of the team event.

He turned himself toward Julia and added in a voice with somewhat more expression in it:

The Olympics started off on a disappointing foot for its host country this past weekend, with two missed opportunities at medals in the biathlon and skiathlon. But the Russian team found its footing Sunday afternoon, first with a bronze medal in speedskating, then in luge, biathlon and a crown jewel----a gold in a sport in which it has trailed other countries over the past two decades.