The Sochi Olympics didn’t quite turn out how Russian figure skater Yulia Lipnitskaya had hoped. After losing out to her Russian teammate and placing 5th overall in the ladies competition, you can bet that this talented 15-year-old will be back with a vengeance for the 2018 Winter Games.
But despite her relative inexperience on the international stage, she has already made quite a name for herself across the world with her fierce determination, signature spin, and blunt remarks. Over the past several weeks she’s also amassed quite the following of Japanese fans. One piece of art made by a Japanese fan even caught the attention of none other than the skater herself! Read on to see the fan drawing that Yulia posted on her personal social networking site.
First, let’s check out this collection of some of the other fan-made artwork that has been popping up around the web!
▼Performing her signature “I” spin- look at that flexibility!
▼Sketchy-style
▼Wow, absolutely gorgeous!
▼In the style of kirigami, the Japanese art of paper cutting
▼”I wanted to draw a quick picture of Yulia during my break time, but gave up halfway.”
▼Adorable super-deformed version
▼”The athlete I admire is Mao. The thing I hate is the media” (click here for the reason why). Illustration by bona fide manga artist Takashi Shiina
…And so on. Even Yulia herself stumbled upon a drawing uploaded by Twitpic user @lizhi3 and uploaded it to her VK account (VK is one of the largest social media sites in Europe).
▼Yulia’s VK account profile page
▼@lizhi3’s picture displayed on Yulia’s account page
It must be pretty exciting for an Olympic athlete to take notice of your artwork, huh?
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