Kamila Valieva of Russia skates throughout the Women Single Skating Free Skating on day thirteen of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games at Capital Indoor Stadium on February 17, 2022 in Beijing, China.
Jean Catuffe|Getty Images Sport|Getty Images
Crushing scenes of Kamila Valieva in tears Thursday after a devastating long program took her out of medal contention may be the last image Olympics fans will have of the skilled Russian figure skater.
At 15, Valieva might currently be on the drawback of her profession– doping scandal aside — as she leaves Beijing as a long shot for another Winter Games look, in Italy in 2026.
The nation’s effective figure skating program cycles through skill like no other, with these Beijing Games marking the 4th straight Russian ladies’s group without any Olympic veterans.
In contemporary figure skating, which typically puts a premium on lighter-weight professional athletes with optimal strength, even a teenager like Valieva might be hard-pressed to remain ahead of more youthful rivals.
“This is a mill. This is a system where you put in lots of input into the beginning, and then it becomes a Darwinist nightmare with survival of the fittest,” stated teacher Peter Donnelly, the director of the University of Toronto’s Centre for Sport Policy.
“I think it’s unlikely” that Valieva will end up being a repeat Olympian, “especially with the mental trauma she’s gone through in the last few days,” Donnelly included.
In contrast to Russia’s one-and-done pattern, U.S. skater Karen Chen, 22, who completed 16 th on Thursday, contended in 2018.
And 2018 U.S. Olympian Mirai Nagasu, then 24, was a veteran from the Games of 2010.
“Within the world of figure skating [in Russia] it is extremely competitive,” stated Robert Edelman, a teacher at the University of California, San Diego, who concentrates on Russian history and the nation’s sports culture. “It’s not just a few people whose parents are wealthy enough for the lessons and rink time. That’s the world we live in.”
Valieva had actually been the heavy preferred to win the specific gold inBeijing She led her nation to a group gold less than 2 weeks earlier and was being hailed as one of the best skaters ever.
But news later on emerged that Valieva had actually checked favorable for a prohibited heart medication in late December, when she conveniently won the Russian championship game.
Trimetazidine is the generic kind of a French medication usually recommended to much older clients experiencing angina. The medication might assist blood circulation to the heart, and Valieva’s eligibility to complete was tossed into doubt.
The discovery followed she skyrocketed to top place after the brief program. She was cleared to get involved by a world sports arbitration body Monday, raising expectations that Russians would take all 3 medals.
Valieva, gold medalist Anna Shcherbakova, 17, and runner-up Alexandra Trusova, 17, stick late-program quad leaps with apparently no effort– that wasn’t the case even one Olympic cycle earlier.
Russia’s Alina Zagitova was simply 15 when she advanced in 2018, landing triple-triple dive mixes outstanding for the time however pale in contrast to several quads some leading ladies now land in their totally free programs.
It would be a tough difficulty for any of Russia’s leading 3 ladies in Beijing to come back for 2026 and hold back coach Eteri Tutberidze’s up-and-coming trainees.
One of them, Adelila Petrosian, 14, has actually currently wowed the judges and might end up being the next starlet to head the future Russian ladies’s group.
Beyond the physical obstacles of introducing those quads, the psychological toll of reaching the Olympics is nearly excessive to bear, even as soon as.
“This is a moment where you genuinely have to say — that poor kid,” previous U.S. Olympian Ashley Wagner tweeted minutes after Valieva’s crash in Beijing.
“She should not have ever been put in this position. She shouldn’t have been out on that ice. She shouldn’t have been put in a position where she became the face of a problem bigger than her.”
The pressure dealt with by Russian skaters to carry out can’t be downplayed, as their nation has actually been dominant for the previous numerous Winter Games.
Zagitova and Evgenia Medvedeva took gold and silver in PyeongChang, South Korea, in 2018, while Adelina Sotnikova advanced in Sochi, Russia, in 2014.
A U.S. female hasn’t taken gold because Sarah Hughes did so in 2002 in Salt LakeCity Sasha Cohen was the last U.S. female to win a private medal, when she caught silver in 2006 in Turin, Italy.
Rinkside cams in Beijing on Thursday caught the minutes after a ravaged Valieva left the ice and the notoriously hard-driving Tutberidze provided no instant convenience.
Valieva bobbled on a triple axel a brief time into her regular prior to she struck the ice two times– on a quad toe loop-triple toe loop mix and after that once again another quad toe loop.
“Why did you let it go? Why did you stop fighting?” Tutberidze asked her saddened trainee. “After the axel, you let it go.”
Disclosure: CNBC moms and dad NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBCOlympics NBC Olympics is the U.S. broadcast rights holder to all Summer and Winter Games through 2032.
