BEIJING — Maybe the pressure was too much for a teenager — even a precociously talented teen such as Kamila Valieva.
The 15-year-old Russian hailed as the new face of women’s figure skating stumbled through triple jumps and tumbled out of quadruples, waving a hand in disgust as her free skate program ended.
After a week embroiled in doping allegations and controversy of international proportions, Valieva quite suddenly looked her age Thursday night, bending under a weight that pressed her out of medal contention, from first all the way down to fourth place.
