MILAN (AP) — It's not often that the second figure skater on the ice in a Winter Olympic competition is must-see viewing. Adeliia Petrosian is different.

The 18-year-old Russian, who was expected to contend for a gold medal, had only competed in one senior event outside her homeland before Tuesday's short program, resulting in one of the lowest seedings and a position near the top of the start list.

Even though she was skating around three hours before the other top contenders, Petrosian was greeted by cheers from devoted fans holding personalized banners in a nearly full arena.

“Today I wasn’t nervous at all,” she said in Russian after a clean, Michael Jackson-themed skate that earned 72.89 points, leaving her firmly in the medal picture even with 27 skaters to go. “So far I'm not feeling any strong external pressure. Let's see what happens in the free skate.”

Petrosian is competing as an individual neutral athlete at the Milan Cortina Olympics due to restrictions on Russia’s participation during its war in Ukraine. The arena announcer introduced her as a “three-time national champion” but didn’t specify a country.

The top-ranked skaters, including the U.S. “Blade Angels” trio of Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu and Isabeau Levito and three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto of Japan, weren't due to skate for another three hours.

“I don't yet have that feeling that the competition is really against them,” Petrosian said when asked how it felt to compete with the likes of Sakamoto, Liu and U.S. champion Glenn for the first time.

“We're so far apart that I haven't even seen them once yet. I don't really have that feeling yet, but obviously I'd be really pleased to be close to them and compete.”

Petrosian showed no obvious sign of injury. Her fitness level had been unclear following comments about injuries in a recent Russian documentary.

Petrosian said she and her coaches considered a high-scoring triple axel for the short program but decided on a safer double for “stability, for the sake of my preparation and my form.”

She has practiced quadruple jumps this week in Milan and could potentially take that high-risk option in Thursday’s free skate, which could boost her score significantly.

“Come on Adeliia! Victory awaits you!” was the message written on one banner in Russian as Petrosian prepared to skate.

“The audience really accepted me well,” Petrosian said. “Each time that I think it’ll be a little less loud, the spectators always somehow shout more, greet me more warmly. And I can’t be unhappy with that.”

Petrosian is coached by Eteri Tutberidze, who has coached numerous Russian women’s skating champions including Kamila Valieva, whose doping case overshadowed the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Tutberidze isn't accredited as Petrosian's coach for the Games but TV showed her watching on a screen in the arena.

Then-IOC President Thomas Bach was critical of the “coldness” displayed by Valieva’s entourage toward the skater, who was 15 at the time, when she missed the podium.

World Anti-Doping Agency president Witold Banka said this month that an investigation found no evidence Tutberidze was implicated in Valieva’s doping case but that he was personally not “comfortable with her presence here in the Olympic Games.”

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MILAN (AP) — Federica Brignone and Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo glided into history at the Winter Olympics on Sunday in very different ways.

Host nation Italy was delighted as Brignone's sensational comeback continued with a second gold medal of the Olympics, still in pain after a badly broken leg last year.

Klaebo has the most gold medals of any Winter Olympian in history with nine after taking gold with Norway's cross-country men's relay team.

Brignone does it again

Winning one gold medal in super-G made Brignone feel like she was living in a movie.

What do great movies get? A sequel.

The Italian skier known as the Tiger was unbeatable in the giant slalom for her second gold of the Olympics and fifth career medal, breaking her own record as the oldest women's Alpine skiing Olympic champion for good measure.

There were two silver medalists as Sara Hector and Thea Louise Stjernesund finished in exactly the same time and bowed to Brignone to mark her victory.

After breaking multiple bones in March, Brignone needed two surgeries and 42 stitches to put her leg back together. She only returned to skiing in January.

Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States was 11th and has now failed to win a medal in eight straight Olympic races since the Winter Games in 2018.

Record ninth gold medal for Norwegian skier

Klaebo stands alone as the most successful Winter Olympian of all time after winning his ninth career gold medal in cross-country skiing.

Norway’s Prime Minister was watching as Klaebo anchored his team's relay gold Sunday. That broke a tie on eight gold medals with three other Norwegians: cross-country skiers Marit Bjoergen and Bjoern Daehlie and biathlete Ole Einar Bjoerndalen.

Klaebo could get into double figures by the end of the Milan Cortina Games. His next chances for a 10th gold are in the team sprint on Wednesday or the 50-kilometer race on Saturday. He's still only 29.

Another win for the moguls king

Mikael Kingsbury of Canada has won almost everything there is to win in moguls skiing. When they added a new Olympic event, he won that too.

Kingsbury took gold, his fifth career Olympic medal, in the inaugural dual moguls event Sunday, three days after settling for silver in the traditional moguls event in a surprise win for Australian Cooper Woods.

Britain won its first-ever Olympic gold in any snow sport with victory for Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale in team snowboardcross.

Biathlon saw a first Olympic gold for Italy as Lisa Vitozzi won the women's pursuit, hours after Sweden's Martin Ponsiluoma's surprise gold in the men's event.

Still to come

Later Sunday, Dutch speedskater Jutta Leerdam and Erin Jackson of the United States compete for the women's 500-meter gold. Leerdam, whose fiance is influencer and boxer Jake Paul, is aiming for a second gold after winning the 1,000, while Jackson won the 500 at the 2022 Olympics and carried the U.S. flag at the opening ceremony in Milan.

Medals are also on offer in the women's ski jumping large hill event and team skeleton. The pairs figure skating competition begins with the free skate and the United States plays Germany in men's hockey aiming to secure a quarterfinal place.

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MILAN, Italy (AP) — Nikita Volodin's career had stalled in Russia. Then came a move to Germany, which made him an Olympic medal contender.

Volodin teamed up with German skater Minerva Hase in 2022, after nearly four years out of elite-level competition skating in ice shows.

He'd come close to giving up on dreams of skating success before Hase's coach arranged a tryout with the German, whose 2022 Olympics had been derailed by a positive COVID test for her previous partner.

“I tried to forget it,” Volodin said of his ambitions after his first practice at the Olympic rink last week. “But now I’m standing here and I can skate on Olympic ice and it’s wonderful.”

Volodin is one of at least 30 Winter Olympians who were born in Russia or used to compete for Russia, and who now represent other countries. Some had family ties, many didn't.

They outnumber by more than two to one the 13 “individual neutral athletes with Russian passports," as Olympic organizers refer to Russians given permission to compete during the war in Ukraine.

Russia was excluded after the Ukraine invasion

Days after the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing ended, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine which soon led to Russian athletes being excluded from a range of sports. Many winter sports didn't allow neutral athletes in international events until last year, so a change of nationality was a way to continue competing.

At least 10 athletes at the Milan Cortina Olympics switched allegiance from Russia since 2022. One, speedskater Kristina Silaeva, has confirmed she switched because of the restrictions on Russian athletes.

“I’m just not ready to wait. An athlete’s time is short, and it isn’t clear when the next international competitions will be if I stay. I can’t miss the peak of my career,” Silaeva told Russian broadcaster Match TV after her move to Kazakhstan in 2023.

Silaeva had to give up Russian citizenship but it's “not such a big problem” to get it back later, she added.

Volodin’s change doesn’t seem to have been directly prompted by the sports restrictions on Russia since there was no realistic prospect of him skating for Russia at the time. Hase, who was seeking a new partner after placing 16th in the 2022 Olympics, has said the pair won't discuss politics in public.

Racing against time for a German passport

Hase and Volodin soon proved a good match on the ice, where his height and strength were crucial for the lifts and throws in pairs skating.

After his arrival, the clock was ticking.

Unlike many skating events, such as the European championships Hase and Volodin won last year, the Olympics require all competitors to be citizens of the country they represent.

Volodin worked through a crash course in the German language with help from Hase to be eligible for naturalization after three years. He got his passport last year.

“I love to wear this Team D (for Deutschland, or Germany) clothing, it’s very beautiful. I feel part of Team D because I’m very well integrated for three years," he said. "I obviously feel part of this team and I try to do my best.”

Russia's history of exporting athletes

Regardless of restrictions on its team, Russia has long exported winter sports talent. Nationality switches among figure skaters, not just from Russia, are especially common in pairs and ice dance.

Russia's depth of talent has long encouraged athletes to move abroad to pursue sporting dreams. The parents of U.S. figure skating star Ilia Malinin were both born in Russia during Soviet times, represented Uzbekistan after it became independent, then coached in Virginia, where their son was born.

There were naturalized Russians on the host team in South Korea for the 2018 Winter Olympics and a Russia-born player, Denis Osipov or Dannisi Aoxibofu, joined Americans and Canadians on China's men's hockey team in 2022.

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