Disgraced coach of Kamila Valieva back at Olympics with two new skaters
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MILAN — She was supposed to be the star of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, winning two gold medals and returning to her native Russia as one of the greatest figure skaters of this, or any, generation.
Instead, 15-year-old Kamila Valieva left in disgrace with no golds and a four-year suspension on the horizon, having triggered one of the largest doping scandals in figure skating history.
Today, with her suspension ending in December 2025, she skates in shows and is a favorite of hard-line Russians. The 19-year-old returned to competition, in a way, in a recent Russian figure skating jumping competition.
But compete at the Olympics again? That’s not going to happen. The Russians have already moved on to other, younger girls and women.
To recap: Valieva, the favorite for the women’s gold medal, led Russia to the team gold medal early in the 2022 Winter Games. But the medal ceremony the next evening was abruptly postponed, and USA TODAY Sports soon broke the news that Valieva had tested positive for a banned substance in December 2021, the results of which were not reported until February, 2022.
An excruciatingly long investigation and appeals process took two and a half years to complete, but when it was over, the United States had won the gold medal and Japan the silver, with the skaters receiving their medals in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics.
In the women’s individual event later in the Beijing Games, Valieva stumbled under the pressure of the scandal and finished fourth. She was allowed to skate after the team competition because there had not yet been a complete investigation or hearing process on the doping violation.
While Valieva is not at the Milan Games, the woman who coached her is. Eteri Tutberidze, who received substantial criticism for her behavior in Beijing, is coaching two skaters in Milan: Georgian men’s skater Nika Egadze and Russian women’s skater Adeliia Petrosian, who will compete as a neutral athlete.
Four years ago, then-IOC president Thomas Bach said he was "very disturbed” by Valieva’s difficult performance in the long program and also criticized Valieva’s "closest entourage,” which was led by Tutberidze. Immediately after Valieva’s long program, TV cameras caught Tutberidze asking tough questions of Valieva: "Why did you stop fighting? Explain it to me, why?”
Bach said that struck him as "tremendous coldness. … It was chilling to see this, rather than giving her comfort, rather than to try to help her. All of this does not give me much confidence in this closest entourage of Kamila, neither with regard to what happened in the past nor as far as it concerns the future, how to deal, how to address, how to treat a minor athlete at the age of 15 under such an obvious mental stretch.”
World Anti-Doping Agency president Witold Banka said this week he is not pleased that Tutberidze is back at the Olympics.
"It’s not our decision the coach is here," he said. "If you ask me personally about my feelings, I don’t feel comfortable with her presence here in the Olympic Games, for sure."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kamila Valieva's disgraced coach back at Olympics with two new skaters
