The Winter Olympics are back, and so is my favorite sport: figure skating. I first got into it during the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, where a lot unfolded for the Russian team. Russian figure skating champions, Alexandra Trusova and Kamila Valieva, had an especially difficult year, facing everything from emotional meltdowns to a four-year ban from the competition. Although Russia remains banned from the Olympics, both Trusova and Valieva are working towards making a comeback in their home country.
Of the two, only Trusova has returned to train with her former coach, Eteri Tutberidze, who coached them during the 2022 Winter Olympics. Tutberidze has faced criticism in the past for allegedly being manipulative and abusive towards her skaters, with some claiming her methods have contributed to injuries and eating disorders. Despite experiencing this intense training environment herself, Trusova has chosen to reunite with the highly successful figure skating coach.
Alexandra Trusova, known as the “Quad Queen,” made history at the 2022 Winter Olympics by becoming the first woman to land five quadruple jumps in a free skate program. Tutberidze had reportedly promised her a gold medal if she successfully landed all five quads. Despite accomplishing that goal, Trusova received the silver medal, finishing behind her teammate Anna Shcherbakova.
This result led to an emotional meltdown by Trusova on live television. During the broadcast, she said she “hated this sport” and expressed frustration that her teammate won gold despite performing fewer quad jumps in her routine.
Following the Olympics, Trusova shifted her focus to her personal life. She married fellow Russian figure skater Makar Ignatov in 2024, and the couple welcomed a son in August 2025. According to her Instagram, she is aiming to return to competition for the 2026-2027 season in Russia, with hopes of eventually competing as an individual athlete at the 2030 Winter Olympics.
For Kamila Valieva, the 2022 Olympics brought a different kind of heartbreak — one with no medal to show for it at all. But she set multiple world records in the women’s free skate, short program, and total score before the 2022 Olympics.
At just 15 years old, she tested positive for trimetazidine, a medication typically used to treat heart conditions but also known to enhance athletic performance by improving endurance and cardiac efficiency. The sample was collected at the Russian Figure Skating Championships in December 2021, but the positive result was not announced until weeks later, during the Olympics. As a result, her competitive results from that period were invalidated, and the Russian Olympic Committee team was stripped of its gold medal in the team event.
Since then, Valieva returned to the rink in late January, following the end of her ban. She is now training with a new coach and participating in domestic events, such as the Russian Jumping Championships, where she placed sixth. Like Trusova, she will have to wait until the 2030 Winter Olympics for a potential return to Olympic competition, as Russia remains banned and any participation would require competing as an individual neutral athlete.