The Russian team is known to breed champions and dominate the figure skating realm. The biggest title any figure skating athlete can dream of is being a gold medalist at the Winter Olympics. A recognizable skater this season was Kamila Valieva. Her grace, beauty, and talent on the ice was mesmerizing. Her ability to maintain high-quality skating skills and complete difficult jumps such as the triple axel or quadruple jumps made her even more outstanding. Very few women can complete such jumps, and she seemed to do it with ease. Naturally, she is a great talent and something you only see once in a lifetime. Even though this appears easy, in reality, most of these athletes train intensely. Imagine training 12 hours a day, being homeschooled, and respecting a strict dieting regime. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the figure skating world and, sadly, there are many other dark secrets to unfold.
On camera, we see pretty dresses, hair, and makeup. However, behind closed doors, it’s a very different story. Many of these young Russian athletes undergo abusive training implemented by their “trusted” coaches. We saw this unravel in this year’s Winter Olympics when Kamila Valieva was caught with an illegal heart drug called Trimetazidine that she took in December. Along with this heart medication, she had two other heart medications in her system that are considered “legal” to the IOC. Despite taking an illegal drug, Kamila Valieva was able to compete in the Olympics based on the status of being a “protected person” as a 15-year-old. It was an unfair ruling to the other athletes, and Kamila Valieva received a negative response from the media and previous Olympic champions. The pressure of being at the Olympics at 15 is already difficult, but now a drug scandal made the situation even worse.
The saddest part of the situation was the lack of accountability for the adults responsible and how nobody stepped in to remove Kamila from competing. It was a recipe cooked up for a disastrous experience, and that is exactly what happened. After placing first in the short program, Kamila struggled to keep up in the free skate and ended in fourth place. It was a moment that could’ve been prevented if someone made sure she was disqualified from the competition. Her coach, Eteri Tutberidze, is known to rule with an iron fist and is most likely the person responsible for giving Kamila the drug to perform well during training season. It was a shame to see someone so young go through an immense amount of pressure and scandal, and have zero support from the coaching staff or family. It was also disappointing to see the IOC overlook her scandal and allow her to compete when other athletes have been stripped of their gold medals or couldn’t compete at all due to similar situations in the past. It was an unfair situation for all athletes and something that could’ve been prevented if correct action was taken.
This is not the end of the story, as two of her teammates from the same coach won gold and silver in the figure skating event. Anna Scherbakova won the gold medal, a spot that was predicted for Kamila, while Alexandra Trusova won the silver medal. Despite achieving those great accomplishments, Anna Shcherbakova stated she felt “empty” after winning and Alexandra Trusova had a meltdown as a result of not getting first place. It was an overwhelming and sad moment for all of the Russian girls competing. The abusive nature of training and pressure from the world affected these girls to the point that they all had a breakdown. Hopefully, reform and investigations will take place and change the harsh methods of Eteri Tutberidze. Correct actions must take place to undo the psychological damage for all athletes competing. It’s for the sake of the athletes and to save the integrity of this sport.