A child is caught using banned substances in connection with a national championship, but is nevertheless pressured to start in the Olympics’ most prestigious competition, which ends in failure, tears and abuse from the coach with the whole world as spectators, before the doping case against her is ended without the responsible anti-doping authorities believing she has done anything wrong and will not punish her. It could only happen in Russia. This week, the International Anti-Doping Agency has appealed the case against Kamila Valijeva to the sport’s highest court, CAS, with a demand for a ban for four years from the time of the trial. In the world of figure skating, this means until Valijeva is 19 years old. The story of the young figure skating star is short, fascinating and most of all just sad. Because she was and to the highest degree is a product of a system built on extreme cynicism. When she moved from her home town of Kazan to the capital Moscow as a six-year-old to focus on figure skating, she took the first step into a regime that seems willing to sacrifice everything to produce its stars. Including drugging them. The coach tyrant When she was 12 years old, in 2018, she got a place in the elite effort at the figure skating academy Sambo 70 and came with it under the wings of the famous and notorious coach Eteri Tutberidze. Or wings and wings. Tutberidze has a reputation that suggests she is most likely to be suspected of having claws. She is described as tyrannical, arrogant, bordering on narcissistic – and her training methods have been described as both military and brutal, subjecting young figure skaters to extreme discipline, including starvation and dehydration. And perhaps also the use of prohibited means. Tutberidze is said to be inspired by the legendary Russian field marshal Aleksandr Suvorov and his motto “hard training makes battles easy”. Tutberidze’s students have also experienced enormous success, in isolation, with Olympic gold and a number of world championship titles. But everything has come at a price. As the world got to witness up close, when 15-year-old Kamila Valijeva failed as the big favorite in the women’s figure skating competition at the Beijing Olympics in February 2022. After falling twice, a tearful Valijeva noted that the judges moved her from clear lead to a very disappointing fourth place. The response from coach Tutberidze was not what was expected in the bottomless disappointment. Instead of consoling Valijeva, her coach shouted at her loudly, ignoring cameras or microphones. “Why did you fail? Explain it to me. Why did you stop fighting? You lost everything after that axel. Why?”. Even IOC President Thomas Bach stated afterwards that he was “shocked” by what he saw. 44 days later, Valijeva has still not commented on either the disappointing fourth place or the doping case against her. This became public the day after Valieva stunned the world during the team competition at the Beijing Games. The 15-year-old had been tested during the Russian Space Christmas Championship 2021, but the tests had been delayed at the laboratory at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm. It took 44 days to get a response. A delay which was to have very large consequences – which are felt to this day. Because in the meantime, Valijeva had amazed the whole world when she became the first to perform a so-called quadruple in a competition. And was hailed as part of the team that won gold in the team competition for the ROC, as they were called. TEAM COMPETITION: The podium in the team competition at last year’s Olympics, with the ROC (center) in first place, the United States in second place (left) and Japan in third place (right). Photo: ALEKSANDRA SZMIGIEL / Reuters Russia was also then banned from participating under its own name, following the revelations of a state-controlled doping regime over a number of years. But this did not prevent them from bringing out new stars. Here the largest of them was again taken. But the Russians would not accept this, and their own anti-doping agency, Rusada, lifted the automatic suspension of Valieva and would allow her to continue competing in the Olympics, while the case was investigated. The sad sort of President Putin’s disciples wanted to show off their favorite at any cost in the most prestigious of all competitions in a Winter Olympics, namely the women’s figure skating. The case was quickly dealt with in the aforementioned CAS – and Valijeva received support in her claim to be allowed to participate. Due to her age and status as a so-called “protected performer”. Never has a lack of real protection been more evident than when Valijeva slid off the ice in tears in Beijing on February 17, 2022. Even without the big favorite on the podium, ROC won twice in the competition. The gold went to Anna Shcherbakova, the silver to Aleksandra Trusova. Both trained by Eteri Tutberidze. The death of one. FAMOUS COACH: Eteri Tutberidze together with Kamila Valijeva during a competition in Russia this autumn. Photo: NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA / AFP Into Putin’s parade Rusada himself took over the investigation of the case against Valieva. To Wada’s increasingly exasperated impatience. The main character herself ended up as one of President Putin’s propaganda figures after the outbreak of war in Ukraine a week after her fourth place in Beijing. On April 26, Valieva, along with other Russian Olympic heroes, was invited to a ceremony at the president’s house. Putin then stated: And everyone clapped. Cleaned up in Russia Including Rusada, the Russian anti-doping agency, which in January finally concluded that Valieva was without fault or intent when she ingested the banned drug trimetazidine, supposedly through heart medication she was supposed to receive by mistake from her sick grandfather. Not a word about what coach Tutberidze may have known – or the presence of controversial doctor Filip Shvetsky, who supervised Valieva in Beijing. COACHING TEAM: Doctor Filip Shvetsky, team manager Valery Artyukhov and coach Eteri Tutberidze in connection with the Olympics in Beijing. Photo: EVGENIA NOVOZHENINA / Reuters Or about something else. For Rusada will not publish the results of its investigation – again to “defend the interests of the 16-year-old”. She who is too young for anything, except to let coaches, managers and politicians bask in the glory of her achievements on the ice. The USA, Japan and Canada, which came in behind the ROC in the team competition Valieva participated in during the Beijing Games, are still waiting for their Olympic medals. They have never been distributed. Now CAS will decide both when they arrive in the post and how long Kamila Valijeva will be banned. Anyway, we’ll never see Kamila Valieva in an Olympics again. Not her trainer Eteri Tutberidze or other Russians either for quite some time, one can only hope. One year after the invasion of Ukraine, we are again reminded of how little they are missed.
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