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International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said it was “chilling” to see the “cold” way distraught Kamila Valieva was treated by her Russian coach after falls in figure skating in Beijing 2022.
Valieva, weighed down by a doping scandal and questions about the wisdom of allowing her to compete, finished fourth on Thursday after several missteps.
Coach Eteri Tutberidze offered no hugs and no consolation for the 15-year-old as she immediately took the field, instead being asked “why did you stop fighting?”
Valieva is the most popular for winning the women’s event, having set several world records in the short time since she first debuted in October. She took the lead after the show. Tuesday’s short but a series of messy falls and landings on Thursday kept her from getting to the finish line.
Bach said: “When I witnessed her being received with terrible coldness by her closest entourage, I was literally chilled to witness this, instead of giving her peace of mind. comfort her, instead of trying to help her.”
Tutberidze, whose coaching methods have been noted, put his arm around the young Russian while she waited for her score. But moments before that demanded knowing: “Why did you let it go? Explain it to me, why?”
Bach said he was “very, very disturbed” by what he saw when he watched the contest on television.
“All of this doesn’t give me much confidence in Kamila’s closest entourage, with regard to what has happened in the past, nor with regard to the future,” he added.
“How to deal, how to address, how to treat a small athlete at the age of 15 under such an obvious mental stress.”
Valieva is the subject of an anti-doping investigation after testing positive for the angina trimetazidine. The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) also said it would investigate Valieva’s entourage, which includes coaches, doctors and other adults around her.
Before discovering she had failed her exam, she helped the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) win the team event in Beijing 2022, but a medal for that will only be awarded once the doping case is over.
In response to Bach, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Dmitry Chernyshenko, said: “We are deeply disappointed to see an IOC President weave his own fictional story about the feelings of our athletes, and then publicly present these as the voice of the IOC .
“This is frankly inappropriate and wrong.
“Win or lose, we know our athletes are winning worlds, and so are they.”
Spotlight on Tutberidze
During the past 11 days, Tutberidze has been at the ice rink while Valieva continues to practice amid uncertainty as to whether she will be able to compete.
In the early days when news of the failed drug test broke, Valieva was pictured embracing her trainer during emotional training sessions and in her athlete bio on the internet. Olympics news agency, the youngster called Tutberidze her “hero”.
Tutberidze has overseen the production line of successful young Russian figure skaters in recent years at the Sambo-70 club in Moscow – including new Olympic champion Anna Shcherbakova and former Olympic champion. silver medalist Alexandra Trusova, both 17 years old.
Before them were 2018 champion Alina Zagitova, 15 when she won the gold medal, and Evgenia Medvedeva, 18, while Yulia Lipnitskaya, 15, when she won the team gold medal at Sochi 2014.
They have all either retired while still in their teens or retired from competition with no comeback imminent.
And the way Trusova said Thursday after her silver medal, she could soon be another name added to the early retirement list.
“I hate this sport, I hate this sport, I hate it all. I’m not going to the medal ceremony… I don’t want to go,” she heard angrily say before then afterwards. Write yourself in a newsletter. conference and added: “Of course these are just feelings and I’ll think again and then I’ll make a decision on what I’m going to do in the future.”
Valieva, Shcherbakova and Trusova are known as the ‘quarter-back’ because they all perform the quarterback jump, which is rare in women’s figure skating. Of the 25 athletes competing in the women’s freestyle event on Thursday, only this trio challenged them.
There’s no doubt that the coaching staff is creating high-scoring skaters, but there’s no doubt many by now will be wondering at what price it was for the two people who shed tears in their eyes. Thursday.
Bach said there’s not much the IOC can do to control an athlete’s entourage.
“We found we had very little means to deal with this,” he said. “We’re not the police, we can’t interrogate and have formal prosecutions; and our sanctions are extremely limited.
“Ultimately, it’s a question where we need the support of governments.”
The Russians are competing at this Olympics under the flag of the Republic of China because their country is banned from international sporting events under sanctions related to the country’s doping past.
Pressure on Valieva ‘beyond my imagination’ – Bach
Valieva’s participation in the event was controversial and meant that she was in the media spotlight for 10 days in Beijing.
She was allowed to compete in the women’s event after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) ruled against reinstating her temporary suspension.
She discovered on February 8th – the day after helping the ROC win the team event – that she had tested positive for the angina trimetazidine but successfully appealed. decision of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency on the application of a temporary suspension.
That decision was upheld by Cas after an appeal by the IOC, Wada and the International Skating Federation, with the court ruling citing “exceptions” regarding her age and the timing of the results. test, given during the Olympics and almost six weeks after the sample was taken.
The IOC has made no secret of its displeasure at her being allowed to compete, saying it will mark an asterisk next to the result if she finishes in the top three until her case is resolved.
Meanwhile, Wada said Cas had omitted “clear and unclear provisions” in its rule regarding the criteria for lifting the mandatory temporary suspension.
It said Cas has effectively “rewritten” the code to say that a forced suspension is now optional in the case of ‘protected people’.
“[Such a move] threatens to erode the integrity of sport competition and athletes’ confidence that they are competing on a level playing field,” the global anti-doping agency said in a statement on Friday. .
“It’s surprising and serious to Wada that a Cas console would see fit to leave the code’s explicit terms.”
Cas’s ruling said it would cause “irreparable harm” to not allow her to compete, but many were questioned on Thursday. Would it be worse to let her compete?
Bach, who won a fencing gold medal at the 1976 Olympics, said he couldn’t even imagine the pressure she was under.
“I know a little bit from my athlete days about pressure. But the pressure was beyond my imagination,” he added.
“See her struggle on the ice, see how she tries to calm down, then how she tries to finish her show, you can in every movement of her body language. , you can feel this is a tremendous mental strain and maybe she would rather just leave the tape and try to leave this story behind her.”
But even now she won’t be able to leave it behind as she still faces a doping investigation and has yet to request a sample B test like her right under Wada regulations.
And who knows if she’ll ever host another Olympics with the track record of those who’ve passed the system before her.
“I can only pray for her that she has the support of her family, the support of her friends and the support of those who have helped her through this particularly difficult situation,” he said. Bach added.
“And we can only then hope she sees that this is handled properly and that there is no such thing as an overwhelming experience for such a young woman.
