Trailing Cohen by only a point after the short programme, the Japanese skater scored a personal best 125.32 points with her free routine, a sparkling display set to Puccini's Turandot.
Arakawa's total of 191.34 left her a huge 7.98 points clear of her more illustrious rivals and earned the Japanese team their first medal of the Turin Games.
Last night, the 24-year-old, who finished 13th in the Nagano Olympics in 1998, completed a flawless routine with confidence. She had reduced the difficulty level of three jumps, but it did not interfere with the presentation.
The audience went wild with cheering at one move, an Ina Bauer, in which travelling at speed along the ice with her feet pointed in opposite directions, she performed a back bend.
it was not the transcendent gold medal performance
the Olympics often produces. So, ultimately, this competition will be remembered as much for who did not grab the gold medal as for who did.
"There was no unbelievable performance," said Hughes, who was here watching her sister Emily. "No one skated the performance of their life. It was a more subdued final. But every Olympics can't have that one amazing night."
Arakawa did skate cleanly but downgraded two planned triple-triple jump combinations to triple-doubles. She also doubled another solo triple later in her program. But she did not fall , which nearly all of her pursuers did , and she won over the judges with seemingly effortless spins
and spirals that were clearly ahead of the field.
And she did not seem nervous, which may have been her biggest accomplishment. (略) Arakawa also did not have to battle perhaps her toughest competitor
, Mao Asada, who is Japan's top skater but, at 15, was a few months too young to compete in the Olympics.
Cohen, however, has battled the pressure of the big moment her whole career, and her nerves have had a terrible habit of failing her.