Alina Zagitova opened her season in a familiar place — comfortably atop the leaderboard — at a lower-level event in Germany.
Zagitova, who in PyeongChang became the second-youngest Olympic singles figure skating champion after Tara Lipinski at age 15, is competing internationally for the first time since placing a shocking fifth at the world championships in March.
The Russian was clean Thursday in her short program at Nebelhorn Trophy in Oberstdorf, Germany, tallying 79.93 points. It’s the highest score in the world in the early season.
Zagitova leads Belgian Loena Hendrickx by a whopping 8.