Evgenia Medvedeva is known for two things: 1) being an incredible figure skater—she competed in the Olympics earlier today—and 2) loving Sailor Moon. This resulted in a fantastic Sailor Moon-inspired routine she performed at the 2017 ISU World Team Trophy. And that’s resulted in someone making a video that matches her routine with the original anime, and honestly it’s just wonderful.
The 18-year-old Russian figure skater is the favorite to bring home a gold medal at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics, though she has some serious competition from her teammate, 15-year-old-Alina Zagitova. Medvedeva might not technically end up being the best in the Olympic judges’ eyes, she’s still very much our ice champion thanks to this jaw-dropping 2017 performance.
Medvedeva is both an absolute beast on the ice and a die-hard Sailor Moon fan, so it’s only natural that she’d combine these two passions into an epic, epic routine. At the 2017 event, she did a full on Sailor Moon reenactment (complete with a magical girl transformation sequence) and placed first.
Videos of her performance have been floating around the internet for a while now, but it’s even more stunning when you see it synced up in time with the anime itself. Medvedeva’s jumps are stunning in and of themselves, but it’s nearly unreal just how flawlessly she managed to capture the spirit of the beloved anime.
The takeaway here is that in the future, the Olympics should definitely consider making anime tribute performances a category all their own.