“She just refused”
Valiyeva’s coach defends Olympic scandal
03/31/2023, 11:19 am
Not all of the Olympic Winter Games medals have yet been awarded. The team figure skating competition is open amid doping charges against Russia’s skating prodigy Kamila Valiyeva. But that’s not even the biggest scandal, her trainer Eteri Tutberidze takes care of that.
The scenes went around the world and caused horror: Because figure skating prodigy Kamila Valiyeva did not deliver the performance that her trainer Eteri Tutberidze expected of her in the Olympic freestyle in Beijing, the teenager was rebuked in front of an audience of millions at the moment of her worst defeat.
Instead of comforting her protégé, Tutberidze reproached the then only 15-year-old. “Why did you stop fighting?” said the 49-year-old to Valiyeva, who was in tears, who was sitting on the bench like a heap of misery after several falls, waiting for the judges’ verdict.
The scandalous behavior of the trainer was then sharply criticized. Even IOC President Thomas Bach intervened and went straight to Tutberidze. To this day, however, she does not want to know anything about any misconduct on her part. In an interview with the sports newspaper “L’Équipe”, Tutberidze even justified her behavior.
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“You can’t hug someone who doesn’t want to be hugged. The problem wasn’t that she failed. The problem was that she gave up. We don’t have the right to give up. I just asked her why she was after the second Element stopped. She just refused to fight to the end,” the coach explained her lecture.
Valiyeva’s behavior is unacceptable
The Olympic Games are “a dream” for everyone. “And many would have sacrificed everything to get their place,” said the coach. That’s why she “cannot accept” behavior like Valiewa’s, said Tutberidze, who said she sat with the teenager in the dressing room for a long time after the competition and talked about the events.
Tutberidze finds it cheeky that even Thomas Bach intervened after the competition and publicly criticized the trainer. “Bach’s allegations are unfair. I expect an apology from him,” said the Russian, who assured that she was “not heartless”.
Tutberidze is concerned about the future of Valiewa, especially the doping tests, which could result in a four-year ban. “It would be the end of her career,” said the trainer, who vehemently defended her protégé against the allegations. “My runners have always been clean. These accusations are insulting.”
During the Olympic Games it became public that Valiyeva had passed a doping test. That is why no medals have been awarded in the team competition to date, Russia would have originally won gold. A temporary ban was lifted again, so Valiewa was also allowed to start in the women’s singles and finally, as the top favorite, could not withstand the pressure and only finished fourth.
Last November, the World Anti-Doping Agency brought the case before the CAS, accusing RUSADA of unreasonably delaying the investigation. Since then, the process has been smoldering, RUSADA acquitted Valiyeva of culpable doping offenses in February, which is why WADA went before the CAS again and continues to demand the four-year ban.