As she has laid waste to her rivals throughout an extraordinary first season as a senior while skating with deeper maturity and sophistication in each passing competition, it’s been increasingly apparent that only an act of God could prevent the Russian prodigy Kamila Valieva from winning figure skating’s most prestigious title.
On Monday, the 15-year-old Valieva offered the world a sneak peek of why next week’s Olympic women’s singles competition is little more than a formality, becoming the first woman to land a quadruple jump at the Olympics – then doing it again moments later – to punctuate the Russian Olympic Committee’s runaway gold in the team event at Capital Indoor Stadium.
