Kamila Valieva's been cleared to skate causing 'irreparable harm' to all the medal ceremonies

Hi guys! Please remember this is only my opinions and emotions on this topic. Links for fancams used are below!

[paolala]

Hi guys! As always the links for the fancams used and video of eng sub kamila interview are in the description box

[jukozovits]

I think raising the age limit to 17/18 yo at the olympics would be very interesting. This would be the ultimate punishment for team tutberidze and would ultimately force them to change their methods to prolong their athletes careers. It would be a game changer

[zaczus]

Your "Beginners Guide to Team Tutberidze (drama)" needs a follow up. This thing happening in Beijing 2022 is insane!

[lupitaarroyo]

Therapist here. I think it’s going to be more traumatic for her to be allowed to skate and possibly stripped of her medal or not and be the scapegoat and target if so much anger and hurt feelings from everyone it has affected than her not being allowed to compete, coping with the pain and lesson of that and having a chance to redeem herself. What her team is doing now is hanging her out to dry and take the fall for their doping scheme. If she understands that, that’s really traumatizing and if she doesn’t and somehow believes that the world is out to get her and target her for no real reason that’s really traumatizing too. Every person that is supporting her being allowed to compete is knowingly or unknowingly actually supporting the most harmful outcome for her. The fact that her team, her coaches have gotten away with barely saying nothing (outside of Russia) let’s you know how much they care about protecting her. So she’s too young for a consequence but not too young to face this alone? How convenient. Shame on everyone involved in this mess.

[marieimperial]

I agree that she should be protected now as a 15 y/o (especially with what we know of the tutberidze team environment), but going forward i definitely think ISU/IOC should increase the age limit. Doing so will discourage not just doping of minors, but general that minors are subjected to when they are surrounded by greedy adults. It's better for their overall welfare both physical and mental/emotional

[nelliesmith]

For me, her performance was hard to watch. A lot of people were saying she’s a fighter and what she did yesterday in her SP was heroic but I didn’t see a fighter. I saw an exhausted child struggling to perform on ice and I’m saying this because I’ve seen her at other competitions and she’s never looked shaken up and vulnerable the way that she did at the Olympics. I think letting her compete is unfair for her as well as the other athletes. I agree with you 100% when you said ‘you’re supposed to protect the person not the athlete’. I know we all love a champion especially one that fights and overcomes obstacles but the idea of sacrificing a child to get one is disgusting to me.

[maccadokka]

Kamila just placed 4th and honestly it just breaks my heart, she looked like she was struggling the entire time she was on the ice for her free skate program. It was like at any moment, she was going to have a breakdown. Whatever hell they put this kid under in the past couple of day behind the scenes, she doesn't deserve it.

[nini]

the thing is, kamila will feel the repercussions of this for the rest of her career whether she wins or not. the ones actually responsible : team tutberidze and roc will get away with it. it may say that they are doing this for a protected person / minor but the only person this is protecting is roc and tutberidze herself. kamila valieva and to some extent the individual skaters coached by tutberidze will bear the brunt of the blame.

edit: what i mean by repercussions is that this doping scandal will forever be attached to her name, perhaps not in russia and fans of the sport will know that even without the drugs she is incredibly talented and fully capable of doing a full program with artistry and athleticism but to the casual audience kamila will be known as 'the doping girl'

[rachelchua]

I still have mixed feelings over this. I feel bad for Kamila Valieva but it doesn't feel right. When I told my brother, who is not interested in figure skating or Olympics, about the doping scandal, he flatly told me that if the athlete tested positive then she shouldn't be allowed to compete anymore.

[holiday_jeeneewoo]

I never clicked on something so fast this 2022

[greyghost]

Her situation reminds me both of Lipnitskaya and Sotnikova. Time will tell if she can still perform in full calibre as she is doing now or eventually she will give up under pressure. Public‘s opinion is a dangerous double blade. They all turned their back on Lipnitskaya, even the Russians, after she went through puberty, developed an adult body and was unable to skate well. Having irreparable injuries is another matter, like Medvedeva. Whichever way you look at it, Kamila‘s future is doomed under Tutberidze‘s tutelage. As history has proven, that coach and her team will suck the life out of prepubescent children and throw them away after they‘ve outlived their usefulness. Predictable and tragic

[polka_]

As a Russian myself, I am so confused and torn apart right now... I mean I am rooting so much for Kamila and other girls (not so much because I'm Russian, but because I'm just very invested in their careers and very much fascinated by their phenomenal skating). However, there's clearly a lot of things wrong with Eteri's coaching system and with the Russian sports system as a whole (and apparently with the Olympic system as well, given their decision).

It's also interesting how much the attitude differs in Russian and other countries' narratives. In Russia literally everyone admires Eteri, all the Russian comments under the videos of the girls skating praise her and give her the greatest accolades. Yes, the results she and her team achieve are mind-blowing, but everytime I read those comments I'm so scared that everyone turns a blind eye to the toxic environment she's producing

[brookepayne]

She should be protected, as in she is allowed to compete at the next Olympics with a CLEAN blood result, but she absolutely should not be allowed to compete this time because it is textbook cheating. they're allowing because she's 15? If they don't raise the age to 16, so that "protection" is no longer an option, I bet that other countries may just dope their athletes because there is clearly no penalty. They needed to make a statement with kamila, but they just showed that doping is okay if you aren't 16 yet

[Trixy]

This oddly has the same feel as Adelina Sotnikova in Sochi. While yes, Adelina benefitted from the corruption, but the higher-ups who made her win never took as much flak. All the comparison videos, comments, and critiques always had Adelina's face in it. Not the Russian judges.

It's always Kamila's face in every tabloid and news site. It's Kamila and the other Eteri girls' name getting lambasted on Twitter. I hate this.

[lazylazier]

we can all agree that Kamila is the victim of an abusive coaching team while also agreeing that she has no place in that competition. The damage has been done to Kamila - and probably to her heart as well. How can you allow a skater to compete after doping and not only that but also overscore her?

What about the irrepareble damage done to other athletes who have to skate knowing all this? The same girls who have been breaking the bodies to "catch up" with the russian girls only to break their bodies? What about the physical and mental damage done to them?

In truth non of the Eteri girls should be competing. You mean all three are under under the same coach but only one was ever doped? Dont joke. Yet here they are.

If somehow Kamila cant skate clean in her free then probably they will put Anna there (and I am now side eyeing her ability to "pull through" when it mattered the most all the time)

anyway, Kaori Waka Young top three

[tiffanny]

While kamila is at the center of all this, can we just talk about an equally important form of harm being done to to other non ROC and most importantly, clean, athletes? It must be so frustrating to see entire moral codes and rules and judging scores being bent for a girl based on the federation behind her. Kaori, Wakaba and Young being lowballed to keep russians on the podium is so discouraging and unfair. These athletes have also sacrificed their bodies to strive towards goals that are ultimately futule because of corruption and blatant, undeserved favoritism for the russians. Even if kamila ends up winning gold and being stripped of her medal, the olympics is almsot all about spectacle, and since kamila is performing, it will be all anyone remembers, rather than the specifics of who placed what after the fact.

[raimesser]

I think she should be DQ, but what irks me the most is delay in sample testing. It should be tested immidiately, covid or no covid. She was already a big favourite for Euros and Olys, that sample was a priority. If there's really a 20 days time for the testing, she should be DQ from RusNats and maybe Euros, but after that time it was like an implicit permission to skate. What next, they will void skaters whole season because of some testing delay? Should skaters miss the comps because their sample is still in testing?
So for me it would be most "fair" to not let Kamila skate during women event (because of test) but not void ROC medals in team (because by delaying the sample WADA allowed her to skate as a representative, and if the result were timely, she would be properly replaced. And her Olys results were clean).

[MissMenthalo]

The question is simple: Do we want clean sport or not? If we want clean sport, then she shouldn’t compete, whether she is 15, 10, or 99 years old, it’s irrelevant to this particular question!

[townfool]

I feel so bad about how this whole thing has played out. No matter what happens on Thursday, I feel like the results are going to be tainted

[schwarzroterose]

Ashleys statement of "you should know what you take" is sadly deeply American. If anyone in the west thinks that in Russia you can actually say "No thanks, won't do that" then here is me bursting your bubble - you can't. The mentality is different, deeply different, and the notion of trusting your coach is so ingrained into this that doubting them would be seen as not being grateful. It is a state wide system and you as a child do not have the voice to go "nah, I will not". Mind you I am not endorsing this or agreeing, simply am fully aware of how this goes down and how little Kamila has had a say in this or well no say. You do as Eteri says. She tells you to jump and the only question you may ask is how high?
I like what the Estonian girls coach said, yes I am shocked myself, but she stated that if there is a drug that makes you do quads then she herself would take it. One thing we miss in this narrative is that Kamila is a very talented girl, flexible and able to mastered the quad, who did not have a say in any of this.
Kamilas international career is over, so much is clear. I already see people referring to her as "the doping girl". Everything she can do will forever be buried under this.
Not to mention what the other athletes must feel? They do so much, risk their health to catch up and now they were told "cute, but nothing you do matters". That is the deep harm truly done since what is the motivation now to stay clean, skate clean, know your technique and artistry? Nothing.