In honour of female empowerment week, I thought it would be a good idea to highlight a particular woman who has worked hard for her success and who has stunned the world with her athletic abilities. Meet Evgenia Medvedeva, a 20 year old Russian figure skater who has won prizes and broken records. She is a young and powerful individual who has accomplished so much and is a wonderful role model for women and men alike.
1. She’s a hard worker.
One thing to know about Evgenia is that she works hard for what she has accomplished. Being a two-time world and European champion doesn’t come easy after all. Besides having a full blown career in figure skating, which requires a lot of time and diligent training, Evgenia also studies in university, which requires so much time and effort as well. With just these two full-time commitments on her hands, I can only wonder how she has time to breathe; time management, prioritization, and efficacy are huge skills necessary to master in order to lead this sort of life. Lastly, she also speaks three languages, including Russian, English, and a little bit of Japanese.
2. She’s extremely accomplished.
Prepare yourselves! The list is long. She is a 2015 World Junior Championship winner; a 2014 Junior Grand Prix Final winner; a 2015 Russian Junior Championships winner; a two-time Olympic silver medalist; a two-time world champion; a two-time European champion; a two-time Grand Prix Final champion; a two-time Russian national champion; a 2018 European Figure Skating Championships silver medalist; a 2019 European Figure Skating Championships bronze medalist; the first ladies’ singles skater to win Senior Worlds and the Junior Worlds back-to-back; the first woman after Michelle Kwan to win back-to-back world titles; the first Russian woman to triumphantly defend her world title; the first female skater to surpass the 80-point, 160-point, 230-point, and 240-point total marks; and she has set a whopping 13 world record scores! I don’t think I’ve had that many firsts, back-to-backs, and successes since I was a baby just learning how to walk and talk!
3. She’s brave.
In my personal opinion, I think Evgenia is very brave. For starters, to enter a competition at such a young age already speaks volumes to me about her strong character. I know that I personally would have struggled a lot with even the idea of competing, as I was always afraid of failure. Evgenia isn’t afraid of failure (at least, she doesn’t show it)—she knows how to compete and she’s good at it. Additionally, she isn’t scared of being passionate. In her figure skating routines, she’s well known for incorporating a lot of emotion and facial expressions. It seems like a no-brainer, but sometimes showing passion is intimidating. You might ask yourself, Will I be judged for getting too into it? But Evgenia isn’t afraid to let her passion shine.
In addition to all her accomplishments, her hard work, and her bravery, she still makes time for the friends she makes around the world, as well as to enjoy the things she loves, like kpop and anime! So, I think we can all take a page out of Evgenia Medvedeva’s long and promising book.