Julia Sauter achieves Romania’s best Olympic performance in women’s figure skating

German-born skater Julia Sauter, who competed for Romania at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, achieved the best results in the country’s history in women’s Olympic figure skating. She finished the competition in 17th place, with a personal best in the free program of 127.80 points and a total of 190.93 points, the best result of her career.

“I am still speechless about the memories I created with my team. It was a wonderful and emotional experience. Thank you all for the support, I am only grateful and blessed,” Julia Sauter wrote Friday, February 20, a few hours after the end of the Olympic event.

Sauter’s free program opened with a confident triple Lutz, then continued with triple-double combinations. In total, she included six triple jumps, ambitious technical content that brought her 66.28 points in the technical score, according to G4Media.

The step sequence and spins received a level 4 grading, and in the artistic components, her performance was appreciated for composition (7.54), presentation (7.86), and skating skills (7.64), totaling 61.52 points.

The student coached by Roxana Luca surpassed her coach’s performance at the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympics (23rd place), setting a new benchmark for Romania in the women’s Olympic competition.

The Olympic title was won by reigning world champion Alysa Liu (United States of America). The silver went to multiple world champion Kaori Sakamoto, and the bronze was obtained by the teenager Amy Nakai, both from Japan.

(Photo source: Comitetul Olimpic și Sportiv Român on Facebook)