Kamila Valieva of Group ROC skates throughout the Girls Single Skating Brief Program on day eleven of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Video games at Capital Indoor Stadium on February 15, 2022 in Beijing, China. (Photograph by Catherine Ivill/Getty Photos)
By DAVE SKRETTA | The Related Press
BEIJING — Kamila Valieva skated off the Olympic ice with the lead within the girls’s brief program and tears in her eyes.
They weren't tears of pleasure.
The big stress and scrutiny on the 15-year-old Russian dynamo, who's on the middle of the newest Olympic doping scandal, appeared to lastly attain a tipping level Tuesday night time. Regardless of an unbelievable efficiency by the requirements of nearly anybody else, Valieva may hardly maintain it collectively whereas she awaited her scores.
She wound up incomes 82.16 factors, greater than eight off her personal world file, however greater than sufficient to prime teammates Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova as they go for a Russian sweep of the rostrum.
Valieva didn't converse afterward, strolling as a substitute by the required combine zone of reporters in silence.
Shcherbakova, the reigning world champion, was second with 80.60 factors after a clear program. Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto broke up the “Quad Squad” with 79.89 factors whereas Trusova, who fell on her opening triple axel, was fourth with 74.60.
Richmond’s Alysa Liu and Fremont native Karen Chen each superior to the free skate portion, set for Thursday night time in Beijing. Liu, the youngest American in Beijing, scored 69.50 factors (eighth place) whereas Chen completed the brief program with 64.11 factors (thirteenth).
The three Russian girls, all coached by the embattled Eteri Tutberidze, are attempting to ship the second podium sweep in Olympic determine skating and the primary within the girls’s competitors.
For the final week, Valieva’s optimistic drug check from an occasion in December has put the medals in query.
The check was flagged by a laboratory in Sweden for a banned coronary heart remedy however solely emerged final week, after her two sensible performances within the group competitors helped win gold for the Russia Olympic Committee.
The Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport dominated that Valieva needs to be allowed to compete whereas anti-doping officers conduct a full investigation — partially as a result of she is a minor and is topic to totally different guidelines from an grownup athlete.
Attorneys for Valieva additionally “introduced some doubts about her guilt,” veteran IOC member Denis Oswald stated Tuesday. Russian attorneys speculated that the pattern might have been contaminated by drugs her grandfather was taking.
In her solely feedback because the drug check surfaced, Valieva advised Russian state broadcaster Channel One on Monday night time that “nowadays have been very troublesome for me. I’m completely satisfied however I’m drained emotionally.”
Valieva stated your entire course of had taught her that grownup life “could be unfair to some extent.”
Others identified that the true unfairness got here in Valieva performing regardless of a optimistic check for a banned substance.
“I can solely converse for myself and that I advocate for clear sporting,” stated U.S. skater Mariah Bell, who together with Liu and Chen superior to the free skate. “That’s the entire concept of the Olympics and our careers, normally.”
Valieva and her teammates had loads of help from the fastidiously curated crowd inside Capital Indoor Stadium. There have been even a number of followers waving Russian flags, which the group can’t use at Olympics as punishment from the nation’s state-sponsored doping scheme on the 2014 Sochi Video games.
There additionally had been loads of followers that sat stoically within the stands when Valieva’s title was introduced.
Her greatest mistake got here on her first component, the troublesome triple axel, when Valieva barely held onto the bounce by the opening chords of Kirill Richter’s “In Memoriam.” She had no such issues along with her triple flip and her triple lutz-triple toe loop, and she or he obtained Stage 4 marks on the remainder of her program to climb into first place.
“The (Russian) ladies are such that nothing would have helped them in the event that they didn’t have that type of expertise,” stated Anastasiia Shabotova, who was born in Moscow however competes for Ukraine. “It’s simply humorous to even give it some thought. They’re simply gifted and do loads of work. So nobody ought to have any questions on that time.”
Valieva had seemed calm and assured throughout her warm-up session hours earlier than her brief program, although she did fall twice on the triple axel. Every time, the shy, reserved Russian rapidly bought up and stored urgent ahead.
Simply as she’s completed all week, even amid the strain engulfing her group.
No matter what occurs Thursday night time, there gained’t be a podium presentation or medal ceremony if Valieva finishes within the prime three. The Worldwide Olympic Committee, involved that she may nonetheless be banned after a full doping case, stated it could as a substitute “set up dignified medal ceremonies” at some future level.
Valieva and her teammates are attempting to increase an period of Russian dominance in girls’s determine skating on the Olympics. It started on the 2014 Sochi Video games, when the nation’s state-sponsored doping scheme first got here to gentle, and Adelina Sotnikova gained the gold medal for the host nation. Alina Zagitova and Evgenia Medvedeva adopted with a one-two end for what was generally known as the Olympic Athletes from Russia on the 2018 Pyeongchang Video games.
Zagitova and Medvedeva additionally had been coached by Tutberidze, the previous ice dancer-turned-kingmaker who has been criticized for pushing younger skaters to excessive limits in her brazen pursuit of Olympic medals.
The World Anti-Doping Company introduced this week it's going to examine Tutberidze together with the remainder of the entourage surrounding Valieva within the lead-up to the Olympics. Tutberidze additionally may very well be topic to prosecution within the U.S. beneath a regulation that criminalizes doping schemes in occasions involving American athletes and sponsors.
“She’s just about a product of the adults round her,” Switzerland’s Alexia Paganini stated, “so I've loads of empathy for her as a result of she, no matter every part, did must get on the ice and work arduous, it doesn't matter what occurred round her. She did endure lots. So I really feel sorry for her, however guidelines are guidelines and they need to be adopted.”
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AP Sports activities Author James Ellingworth and Related Press writers Sally Ho and Aaron Morrison contributed.