at the figure skating gala, although he did take the ice briefly to announce that he would skip the World Championships next month. Referee: Britta Lindgren Assistant Referee: Junko Hiramatsu Judges: Margaret Worsfold Vladislav Petukov Sally Rehorick Mariana Silvia Chita Mieko Fujimora Sviatoslav Babenko Evgenia Bogdanova Paula Naughton Marie-Reine Le Gougne Zsofia Wagner (substitute) Ladies The primary contenders for the gold medal were Americans Tara Lipinski and Michelle Kwan. Kwan and Lipinski were in first and second place respectively after the short program. In the free skating, both Lipinski and Kwan skated clean. 6 judges placed Lipinski ahead of Kwan, and three placed Kwan ahead of Lipinski, which meant Lipinski won the gold medal, and Kwan took the silver. The primary competitors for the bronze medal were Maria Butyrskaya and Irina Slutskaya from Russia, and Chen Lu from China. In the free skating, they all skated well, but had mistakes. The final placements were very close. The 3rd–5th place votes were split unevenly between Chen, Butyrskaya, and Slutskaya. Chen beat Butyrskaya by the tally of 5 judges to 4 and beat Slutskaya 6 judges to 3, giving Chen her second straight bronze medal in the Olympic Games. Tara Lipinski (gold), Michelle Kwan (silver) and Chen Lu (bronze) were the World Champions in 1997, 1996 and 1995, respectively. Lipinski also became the youngest competitor in Winter Olympics history to earn a gold medal in an individual event. While not a medal winner, France's injured Surya Bonaly, who placed 10th, completed an (illegal) backflip during her long program, making her the fourth person and only woman to ever land a backflip in competition. She is the only person to land on one foot and to do a split mid-air (now colloquially referred to as a 'Bonaly'). She performed the unorthodox maneuver as a result of a previous fall and poor program due to an injured foot, however given the illegal nature of the move, her backflip was not considered when grading her technical merit. FS=Free Skating SP=Short Program, FS=Free Skating Referee: Sally-Anne Stapleford Assistant Referee: Tjasa Andrée-Prosenc Judges: Frank A. Parsons Judit Furst-Tombor Karin Ehrhardt Jan Hoffmann Susan A. Johnson Anatoli Bogatyrev Alfred Korytek Maria Miller Anne Hardy Thomas Liliana Strechova (substitute) Pairs Artur Dmitriev of Russia won his second Olympic gold here. He had previously won in 1992 with a different partner. He was the first man to win the Olympics