While she appeared so far unsinkable, the weight of the controversy ended up falling on Kamila Valieva. Tested positive for trimetazidine at the end of December but despite everything authorized to compete in these Games, the young 15-year-old Russian had been scrutinized since the beginning of the week by cameras around the world. An excessive attention which had not prevented her from flying over the short program, but which surely weighed at the time of the free program, this Thursday. Yielding under the pressure, she fell twice and finished at the foot of the podium, when the gold was promised to her.
Feverish from the start, even if her face remained impassive for a long time, Valieva fell in quick succession on two jumps, then was forced to put her hand on the ground on a third. Extremely demanding but usually mastered to perfection, including quadruple jumps having never been performed at the Games until this year, his program has since lost all its magic.
Installed on a bench while waiting for the sanction of the judges, the tears quickly rose to her, despite the applause, as if the verdict was inevitable. The Russian eventually finished in fourth place, with only the sixth mark of the day.
The podium might be held
For its competitors, the fall, literally and figuratively, of the favorite, is a relief. On the one hand, because it allows her two compatriots, Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova, and the Japanese Kaori Sakamoto to gain a place in the Olympic ranking. On the other, because it ensures the holding of the award ceremony and the medal ceremony: if Valieva had finished in the top 3, it would have been necessary to wait for the final decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport to formalize the podium. A situation that already poses a problem for the team event, won by the Russian Olympic Committee thanks to a Valieva in levitation, for which no one has yet received a charm.
Valieva tested positive for trimetazidine, a drug used to treat angina pectoris, on December 25 during the Russian championships. His control had earned him a first provisional suspension by the Russian anti-doping agency, finally lifted following an appeal, by decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The latter did not comment on the merits of the case but simply authorized her to continue her Games. For his part, the athlete pleaded accidental contamination, claiming to have inadvertently taken a drug from his grandfather.
A sulphurous trainer
The decision of the CAS, which caused a lot of ink to flow, was motivated by her young age, which earned her a protected status and lightened sanctions, and by the great prejudice that a non-participation in the Olympics would represent for her. But it inevitably tarnished the viewing of this individual event, for which it was impossible to stop at the result.
Inevitably, this scandal around her participation shone the spotlight on the young prodigy of her discipline, who had splashed her talent at the last European championships, and on her trainer Eteri Tutberidze. At the head of a squad of skaters with excellent results for several Olympiads, the latter is also renowned for her sulphurous training methods, which have forced several of her athletes to end their careers very prematurely. In the event of suspension for doping, that of Valieva might well take the same direction.
