15-Year-Old Russian Prodigy Wows at Olympics, Evgeni Plushenko Ice Skating to Ginuwine's "Pony" Wins the Internet

Yulia Lipnitskaya is killing the competition in Sochi, while Evgeni Plushenko dominates YouTube

By John Boone Feb 11, 2014 8:03 PMTags
Yulia Lipnitskaya, Sochi Winter OlympicsMatthew Stockman/Getty Images

Turn that Ashley Wagner frown upside down, because this ice skating routine is guaranteed to impress you. And you'll be doubly impressed when you learn that this skater, Yulia Lipnitskaya, is only 15 years old.

WHAT?! She not even old enough to get a driver's license! (Here or in Russia, where you need to be 18. Though when she turns 16 she can get a motorcycle license. Fun fact! But we digress.)

Yulia was born on June 5, 1998. Olympic rules require athletes to be at have turned 15 before July 1 of the year before the games. Which means that Yulia made the cutoff by only 26 days.

And she's already won gold at Sochi—Russia won in the Team Figure Skating Overall.

Watch Yulia Lipnitskaya's full performance on NBC's Olympics site.

Meanwhile, the Internet is having some figure skating fun of its own, by dubbing Olympic ice-skating routines to different music. Buzzfeed perfectly synced one routine to Beyoncé and Jay Z's "Drunk in Love" (the Olympics are seriously lacking in routines to Beyoncé music this year), but this one takes the cake: 

Behold, Russia's Evgeni Plushenko skating to Ginuwine's "Pony." You're welcome.

(His actual performance was to "Sex Bomb" by Tom Jones, so this isn't that far off.)

This video is from an exhibition routine duting the 2005-2006 season, but Plushenko is still competing (he was on the same figure skating team that won gold this year). Here's hoping he brings the sexy back this year. Has a figure skater ever twerked on ice before?