Women’s figure skating debacle, after favorite’s positive doping test and meltdown in free skate, may leave a permanent scar on the sport and Beijing games
Only a few feet away, on the other side of blue curtains adorned with the Olympic rings and the Beijing 2022 logo there was chaos, uncontrollable sobbing, yelling, arguing.
Valieva’s meltdown opened the door for Shcherbakova, her Russian Olympic Committee teammate and training partner, and a gold medal victory that afterward was buried beneath the weight of the doping scandal and its emotional toll. Whether one believed Valieva is an unknowing victim in the latest Russian doping controversy or a willing participant, most people on both sides agreed she should not have been cleared to skate in the women’s competition.
“There is, without limitation, no proof of purchase, no underlying medical records, and no prescription,” a WADA brief said, referring to the claim that Valieva’s grandfather was taking trimetazidine. USADA has tried successfully to have hypoxen placed on the banned substances list. Valieva’s mother said her daughter takes hypoxen for “heart variations,” according to WADA documents.
The B-sample from Valieva’s December 25 test has yet to be tested to confirm the positive result and she still faces sanctions including a two-year ban. The success of Tutberidze’s skaters has prompted praise, criticism and growing suspicion. Tutberidze’s training methods emphasize skaters working on quad jumps, leaps in which a skater makes four rotations, before they reach puberty. Tutberidze believes the lighter a skater is, the easier it is for them to complete a quad jump, an emphasis on weight that critics maintain has led to eating disorders and injuries prematurely ending the careers of several Tutberidze-coached skaters.
But she would, however, have to wait through the performance of Valieva, the final skater and overwhelming favorite, until the gold medal was secure.