Don’t let Kamila Valieva’s slight frame, sequined dress, and lipstick fool you. The 15-year-old Russian figure skating phenom, like all the Olympic skaters American TV viewers woke up to Tuesday morning, is a strong, fearless, world-class athlete.
She is no porcelain doll. There isn’t a fragile bone in that petite body.
Anybody who has ever watched a skater train countless hours in a cold rink knows that. Anybody who has seen Valieva launch into the air at full speed and rotate four times in a tight spiral with her hands over her head knows that.
Beneath her graceful and elegant appearance is a fierce competitor, as determined to win a gold medal as any Olympic skier, sprinter, swimmer or weightlifter. For that reason, she should have to abide by the same doping rules as other athletes.
She should have been sent home from the Beijing Olympics for testing positive for a banned drug.
If American track star Sha’Carri Richardson was sent home from the Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for marijuana, which is not a performance-enhancing drug, then Valieva should have faced at least the same punishment for ingesting trimetazidine, a banned heart medication that could enhance endurance.
Instead, amid strong backlash from the Olympic and skating community, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) allowed Valieva to compete while her case remains unresolved, and she sits in first place after Tuesday’s short program. She advanced to Thursday’s long program with a score of 82.16 and remains a gold medal favorite.
Valieva tested positive on Dec. 25. The test first came to light last week, after Valieva became the first female to land a quad jump at an Olympics. She led the Russian team to gold in the team event. She told Russian media perhaps she ingested it by accident while drinking from the same glass as her grandfather, who reportedly takes heart medication.
CAS ruled that Valieva would be allowed to skate, but there will be no medal ceremony if she places because there is a chance her medal will be revoked later after further investigation.
The expulsion of Valieva would have deprived her the chance to fulfill her dream, and deprived skating fans the world over from seeing her balletic, gravity-defying routines. I have covered seven Winter Olympics, seen lots of fantastic skaters, and I was among those who gushed over the Russian last week, urging sports fans to find videos of her on YouTube because she is that good.
But letting her skate under the cloud of a doping investigation is an affront to the entire Olympic movement, all its ideals, and to every clean athlete in Beijing.
If she finishes among the top three — a safe assumption — there will be no medal ceremony, which deprives the other medalists from having that internationally-broadcast podium moment they have been dreaming about their entire lives.
“I am so angry. The ladies event is a complete joke,” former Team USA skater Adam Rippon said Monday on Twitter. “So many Olympic experiences stolen from clean athletes who got here without the help of performance-enhancing drugs. What a shame.”
NBC announcers and former skating stars Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski condemned the decision to let her skate Tuesday before and after her performance. “This is a slap in the face to all of skating,” Weir said. “It’s heartbreaking for many in the skating world because she is a tremendous talent. But if you don’t play by the rules, then you should not be in this competition.”
Lapinski added: “We have to remind ourselves that she is just 15 years old, a minor, and I know more than anyone what it’s like to compete at an Olympic Games at 15 years old. But a positive [drug] test is a positive test. … We should not have seen this skate.”
Valieva understandably did not stop to talk to reporters after leaving the ice Tuesday.
This latest stain on a Russian athlete comes three years after the country was banned from international sports competitions for four years due to allegations of state-sponsored doping. Despite the ban, some Russian athletes (who were presumed to be clean) were allowed to compete at the Winter Olympics under the flag of the Russian Olympic Committee rather than the Russian flag.
Russian skaters hold three of the top four places heading into Thursday’s free skate. There is a good chance that the trio, known as “The Quad Squad,” could sweep the medals as all three of them do quad jumps. These talented athletes were hand-picked as little girls and have been training countless hours at the most elite Russian skating academies for this moment.
Valieva is arguably the best figure skater the world has ever seen. She probably would have landed those quads, skated like a ballerina, and won the gold medal without any chemical help. But we will never know. And neither will she.
If she was given a drug by her coaches or someone in the Russian skating federation to give her a slight edge, shame on them. Instead of being the most celebrated skater in Olympic history, she is the most controversial since Tonya Harding was allowed to skate in Lillehammer 1994 amid allegations her entourage assaulted rival Nancy Kerrigan.
You could sense the weight of it all on Valieva’s slender shoulders Tuesday, as she had an uncharacteristic stumble out of a jump and broke into tears after her performance.
It was a sad moment for the teenager, her country, and her sport, which has endured controversy for decades. This one may leave a permanent scar that no amount of makeup can cover up.
