Individual, Women

The last two gold medalists were back, and defending champion He Wenna (CHN), also the 2011 World Champion, led the qualifying. The 2004 gold medalist, Anna Dogonadze (GER) was competing at the age of 39, but placed 10th in qualifying and did not make the final. Canada’s Rosie MacLennan, who had placed seventh at Beijing, had qualified fifth but in the final she posted the highest difficulty and execution scores and had the third-best time of flight score. In difficulty, her 15.400 score was the only one in the field over 15 points, giving her a huge advantage. In the end MacLennan won a surprising gold medal, giving Canada its first gold of the 2012 Olympics. The 2004 bronze medalist, Huang Shanshan (CHN), the 2009 World Champion, placed second, as she was second in all phases of scoring. He Wenna slipped landing her final skill and dropped back to the bronze medal. Canada’s Karen Cockburn, a three-time medalist in the event, placed fourth. With Cockburn and MacLennan, Canada had now won a medal all four times the event had been on the Olympic Program.