At 15, Russian Kamila Valieva has become the center of attention of the entire sports planet. Not only because the prodigy became, in the team figure skating competition of the Beijing Games, the first skater to land quadruple jumps in Olympic history, but above all because she is mixed, despite her very young age, to another story of doping where Russia and the high international sporting bodies do not grow.
On Monday, the International Court of Sport lifted the temporary suspension of Kamila Valieva, who would have been declared positive, at the end of December, for a prohibited substance normally used to relieve angina pectoris, but which was only sanctioned last week. The Olympic authorities replied that they would not give a medal to her or anyone who might have to step on the same podium as her until they had gone to the bottom of the matter.
It is in this context, and with less than 24 hours notice, that the teenager presented herself, Tuesday evening, on the ice of the Omnisport Palace of the capital, in Beijing, for the start of the individual women’s competition with short programs.
Until then not particularly demonstrative, except for the Chinese athletes, the public received a solid boost from a few dozen representatives of the Russian delegation who had come to encourage the slender skater in the lilac dress. Then it’s silence, an air of piano and the clicking of the photographers shooting.
The first spin goes sideways, but this is quickly corrected. Gestures become graceful, flowing, natural. At the end, the overflow of emotions forces him to pause for a few seconds before coming to greet the judges and the public.
Here are the results of the races at the end of the evening: in first place, Kamila Valieva (15 years old), Russian Olympic Committee; in second place, Anna Shcherbakova (17), Russian Olympic Committee; in third place, Kaori Sakamoto (21), Japan; and in fourth place, Alexandra Trusova (17), Russian Olympic Committee. See you at the free program event on Thursday, China time.
This report was financed thanks to the support of the Transat International Journalism Fund.The duty.