Valiyeva? Not strong enough
Russia defends ruthless Tutberidze
2/18/2022, 2:59 p.m
The sad fall of 15-year-old figure skating princess Kamila Valiyeva in the Olympic freestyle also horrified IOC boss Bach. Above all, there is sharp criticism of the behavior of their trainer. In Russia, no one understands that. Cold tones come from the Kremlin.
The disturbing figure skating drama about the only 15-year-old Kamila Valiewa and the ice-cold reaction of her trainer Eteri Tutberidze caused great outrage. Even the IOC boss Thomas Bach, who is otherwise so diplomatic when dealing with Russia, considers the young person to be a victim and in this case distances himself from the country that is blocked for the Olympics and whose athletes compete in Beijing without a flag and anthem: as a result of Large-scale doping cover-up. “All of this does not give me any particular confidence in Kamila’s environment – neither in terms of the situation that has played out in the past, nor in the future,” he said.
When he saw the harshness with which the young athlete was received by those around her, a chill ran down his spine. “Instead of comforting her, instead of helping her after what happened, you could feel how freezing the atmosphere was.” A frosty reaction to the sentences of the 68-year-old was not long in coming. Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Chernyschenko dismissed the sports official’s criticism as “inappropriate and wrong”. He was deeply disappointed to see an IOC President “spinning his own fictional narrative about the feelings of our athletes,” he told “insidethegames”.
Bach’s surprisingly clear words were also sharply parried by the Moscow government. “He doesn’t like the toughness of our coaches, but everyone knows that in top-class sport, the coach’s rigidity is the key to his protégés’ victory,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. The Kremlin congratulated the medal winners and called on them to be proud of them. “Well, Valiyeva finished fourth. In high-performance sport, the strongest wins.” After days of fuss about her positive doping test and the fight for the Olympic start in singles, the top favorite Valiyeva broke under this load in the ice oval of the Capital Indoor Stadium and fell to fourth place with gross jump errors. Gold went to the Russian world champion Anna Shcherbakowa, silver to teammate Alexandra Trusowa. Kaori Sakamoto of Japan took bronze.
Consolation from former Tutberidze student
Meanwhile, Valiyeva was comforted by former Tutberidze student Yevgenia Medvedeva. “I’m so happy this hell is over for you,” posted the 2018 Olympic silver medalist on Instagram. “I congratulate you on the end of the Winter Games and I hope you can live and breathe easy.” Waliyewa also received encouragement from Germany. “My dear sweet Kamila! I’m sure everything you’ve been through will only make you stronger!” Olympic pair skating champion Aliona Savchenko also wrote on Instagram. “You are the hostage of the situation.”
Meanwhile, Valiyeva’s lawyers want to use the B sample to prove her innocence. She will apply for the investigation because, among other things, there could have been a technical error by the Stockholm control laboratory in the analysis of her doping test, her lawyers said. This emerges from the 41-page verdict in the case, which the International Court of Arbitration for Sport CAS published. In her defense, Valiyeva’s lawyers pointed to the “extremely low concentration” of the banned trimetazidine found in the A sample.