Yesterday during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, ladies from around the world competed in the women’s short program figure skating. This involved strapping on shoes encumbered by sharp blades and leaping up over a solid sheet of ice. Terrifying, beautiful, courageous.
Check out these images of the women caught mid-jump — and often face-down — hovering above the rock-hard unforgiving frozen stage, while the whole world watches.
Akiko Suzuki of Japan
Kaetlyn Osmond of Canada
Natalie Weinzierl of Germany
Adelina Sotnikova of Russia
Eliaveta Ukolova of the Czech Republic
Park So-Youn of South Korea
Viktoria Helgesson of Sweden
Zhang Kexin of China
Mae Berenice Meite of France
Yulia Lipnitskaya of Russia
Gracie Gold of the United States
Li Zijun of China
Anne Line Gjersem of Norway
Ashley Wagner of the United States
Valentina Marchei of Italy
Elena Glebova of Estonia
Yuna Kim of South Korea
Images via AP.