She jumped over her head: a figure skater from Russia became the main sensation of the Beijing Olympics

Almost any Olympics is marked by events or people who forever go down in the history of sports. The star of Beijing 2022 was 15-year-old Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, who was the first in women's skating to perform a quadruple jump at the Olympic Games, reports with the BBC.

Photo: Shutterstock

Her performance deservedly caused general euphoria, but at the same time it made us think about the future of women's figure skating in general.

The world was circulated by photographs showing Valieva hanging in the air parallel to the ice. “History is accomplished” and “She laughs at the laws of physics” were the two main headlines that appeared in the world press after her speech.

To be fair, it should be noted that quadruple jumps in women's skating are not that uncommon. At different times, this element was performed at junior competitions by the Japanese Miki Ando and Kamila Valieva’s teammates Alexandra Trusova and Anna Shcherbakova (all three are students of Eteri Tutberidze), as well as the athlete from Kazakhstan Elisabeth Tursynbaeva at the only adult world championship.

But if earlier it was considered rare personal achievements, mainly in junior sports, then the repeated, almost routine performance of Valieva's element in the Olympic program can be the beginning of a new reality and give impetus to a number of irreversible changes in women's single skating.

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To what extent can the breakthrough of the Russian school change the rules of the game in this sport? What if without a quadruple jump it will no longer be possible to win?

sincere delight

The young Russian woman is discussed by all the world's media, sports experts and fans. She came to adult sports only six months ago and during this time she managed to set several world records and become the European champion in 2022.
After her performance in Beijing, with the light hand of the British press, the epithet “Miss Perfection” was firmly assigned to her, and some commentators are already calling her the greatest figure skater.

On the Chinese social network Weibo, posts with the hashtag #valieva collect tens of millions of views and responses, and user interest is growing every day.

“I love the Olympics because even in such difficult times, the planet stands still to watch in admiration as athletes (and artists!) like Kamila Valieva show us the beauty of this world performed by one person. Song. Poem. Painting. To dedicate your (in Valieva’s case still small) life to this art... Thank you, Kamila Valieva, for your gift of making this world more beautiful,” Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin wrote on Twitter.

“I don’t know where she gets such sensuality of performance at this age, besides technical skill. It’s so honest and extraordinary,” says British figure skater Robin Cousins, Lake Placid 1980 Olympic champion and European champion.

“She poses a triple threat to her opponents – technically, artistically and with her mental toughness,” says Nagano Olympic champion, American figure skater Tara Lipinski.

“If Camila’s performance didn’t inspire the whole world to take up figure skating, then I don’t know what else people need,” said three-time US champion and world championship medalist Johnny Weir.

Is quadruple the holy grail?

However, as the wave of initial enthusiasm for Kamila Valieva gradually subsides, some experts begin to wonder how the new standard will affect figure skating itself and how ethical are the methods of training young skaters?

First of all, doctors consider quadruple jumps to be a traumatic element for women.

As sports medicine experts from the University of Wisconsin, who participated in the training of the US team in the 1990s, explained, for a quadruple jump, a skater needs a powerful effort to combine the moment of vertical break from the ice with the beginning of the rotation.

However, the constitution of the female body, in particular, wide hips, as well as a weaker push than that of men, do not allow to gain the necessary rotation. Therefore, experts say, girls jumping quads begin to twist the body even before the push and take off into the air, which can be very traumatic for the back.

To make such jumps, experts say, can only teenage girls, whose body is not yet fully developed. This means that if the quadruple jump becomes an element without which it is no longer possible to win major competitions, this sport will simply be closed for girls over 18 years old.

Three students of Eteri Tutberidze - Kamila Valieva, Alexandra Trusova and Anna Shcherbakova - whom the English-language press calls the “quad squad”, clearly illustrate the words of the doctors - they are all 15-17 years old.

Today, the transition from junior sports to the adult category is possible only after reaching the age of 15, and, therefore, a figure skater's sports career can be limited to an average of three years. And this is not enough to prepare even for one Olympics.

Already, 24-year-old Elizaveta Tuktamysheva is considered the oldest figure skater of the Russian national team.

For comparison, Russian Maria Butyrskaya won her last European Championship in 2002, when she was 30 years old. Italian Carolina Costner, at the age of 25-26, won the European and World Championships, and took the last European bronze medal in her career at the age of 31 in 2018.

The age revolution in women's figure skating took place in less than four years, and this despite the fact that quadruple jumps are not yet a mandatory element of the program.

“I know many athletes who are broken emotionally and physically because the system doesn’t care how much human material is wasted as long as there are those few who live up to expectations. But the most worrying thing is that those who are able to catch on stay in the sport for only a few years, and then they too break down: they are “too old” to continue their career,” said Finnish figure skater Kaira Korpi, a three-time medalist, in an interview with the British press European Championships, who after finishing her career studies sports psychology.

According to her, polls conducted from time to time show that viewers prefer to look at the performance of more mature skaters, so as not to think about the health costs of very young athletes in their success.

Eteri’s “Children’s Factory” is just a consequence of the inhumane culture that has developed in our sport. She didn't come up with this. There are many coaches who work in a similar manner, and many federations approve of such methods of training athletes,” says Korpi.

According to many Western experts, there is only one way out of this situation - to raise the age limit for transition to adult sports.

Pressure and motivation

But back to Beijing.

Singles singles tournament will start on February 15th. And although Kamila Valieva is also considered the main favorite in it, many experts believe that in vain she skated such a complex program in the team competition.

This discipline, introduced at the Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014, is considered by many to be controversial. There is an opinion that it takes a lot of strength and concentration that skaters need in their individual competitions.

In addition, the excessive hype around Valieva can play a cruel joke on her, as it already happened with another student of Eteri Tutberidze, Yulia Lipnitskaya. After winning the team competition at the Sochi Olympics, 15-year-old Lipnitskaya was surrounded by such attention from the press and found herself under such pressure that she failed the individual tournament, and soon left the sport altogether, never winning another significant competition.

In one of the interviews, Kamila Valieva said that pressure helps her personally to concentrate and move forward. Her huge army of fans will check it out very soon.

But in any case, she has already gone down in history as “Miss Perfection”. The main thing is that now that she has literally jumped over her head, she has enough motivation in sports for some more time.

Dope again?

The awards ceremony for the winners of the Olympic team competitions in figure skating is delayed for more than a day due to problems with a doping test of one of the Russian athletes, reports Voice of America. Problems with the ceremony were confirmed to journalists by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Skating Union.

According to the portal, we are talking about a test passed by one of the Russian athletes before the start of the Games in Beijing. Which of the skaters passed it is not specified.

The press service of the IOC declined to comment on the situation in detail, citing legal consequences. The Russian Figure Skating Federation also declined to comment.

The situation, which requires consultation with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), arose yesterday, according to the International Skating Union.

Russian figure skaters, who compete under the flag of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) due to doping-related sanctions, won the team competition on February 7. The awards ceremony was supposed to take place on February 8 at 21:XNUMX local time, but has not yet taken place.

The Russian team was represented by Mark Kondratyuk in men's skating, Kamila Valieva, sports couple Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov, and dance duet Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov in women's skating. The Russians scored 74 points, the US team was in second place, and Japan was in third place.

As sports lawyer Artem Patsaev explained, automatic selection of the gold medal from Russia in the team figure skating tournament at the Beijing Winter Olympics is not possible, since the annulment of the result is implied only if a positive sample is taken during this competition.

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“And then there are so many options for the development of events that it makes no sense to talk about them,” the sports lawyer added.

Earlier it was reported that Russian figure skaters Kamila Valieva, Mark Kondratyuk, Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov did not participate in today's training. At the same time, Kondratyuk must perform tomorrow in the free program of the men's tournament.

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