Amazing Images of Olympic Figure Skaters Defying Gravity

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.