SOCHI, Russia -- In the whirlwind stirred up by Yulia Lipnitskaya, it was easy for the other Russian to get lost in the dust.

Now the other Russian, Adelina Sotnikova, is her country's first women's Olympic singles champion, thanks to a judges' decision that may go down as among the most questionable in figure skating's checkered history.

A year after finishing just ninth in the World Championships, she dusted Lipnitskaya and beat other more acclaimed rivals, including defending champion Yuna Kim of South Korea and Carolina Kostner of Italy, in Thursday's free skate to become a winner as surprising as Sarah Hughes of the United States in 2002.

Kim had won the short program, when Sotnikova and Kostner were within a point of her lead. Sotnikova wound up with a final margin of 5.48 over Kim, whose exquisite performance to a tango did not get the enormous edge over the Russian in component scores that it deserved.

Sotnikova finished with 224.59 points to 219.11 for Kim. Kostner, who did a strong performance to Bolero, was third at 216.73.

Gracie Gold was fourth at 205.53, with teammate Ashley Wagner seventh at 193.20. It meant the U.S. women went without a medal in consecutive Olympics for the first time since 1948.

Lipnitskaya, who fell in both the free skate and short program, wound up fifth.

Sotnikova's victory made Russia the only country to have won Olympic titles in every discipline, including the team event introduced this year.

Her free skate showed much more refinement than her helter-skelter short program, even if Sotnikova hammed it up at the end by turning an open hand into a wave at the judges. They acknowledged that wave with the second highest free skate score in history.

She made one mistake, a two-footed landing on the third jump of a combination, which got a negative grade of execution. But Sotnikova's combination of big jumps, speed and power made her case for a big lead in the technical marks, and it led the judges to get more than a little carried away with her component scores.

That Kim did not have a triple loop jump in her free skate cost her five or more points had she executed it cleanly, which would have been the difference.

Sotnikova, 17, of Moscow, was the phenom before Lipnitskaya, 15, became one this season. She won her first of four senior national championships at age 12 and her fourth in December, beating the 15-year-old Lipnitskaya.

Having expressed her gratitude to the judges for the scores that left her just .28 behind Kim after the short program, Sotnikova might think of sending caviar and champagne for their continued generosity in the free skate.

Her free skate to Saint-Saens' Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, choreographed by five-time U.S. ice dance champion Peter Tchernyshev, relied on her energy and strong spins to create a winning impression. Sotnikova, from Moscow, is a perfect skater for the sport's connect-the-dots scoring system.

Her striking speed on the ice came from time training with a group of male skaters when she was younger. Sotnikova would try to keep up with them.

Sotnikova, second at the European Championships the past two years, feels a responsibility to help pay for her younger sister Maria's extensive surgical and medical bills, according to Russian journalist Elena Vaytsekhovskaya. Maria Sotnikova has Treacher Collins Syndrome, a congenital disorder causing facial and cranial deformities.

"Figure skating is not a hobby. It's my work, which I want to do, and do well," Sotnikova told a Russian website last year.

Sotnikova was disappointed not to have a role in the team event. Lipnitskaya got first choice for winning the European Championships, and her coach, Eteri Tutberidze, wanted to have her do both programs.