In the team figure skating competition, 15-year-old Kamila Valieva made history becoming the first woman to land a quad jump in the Olympics. Her final score of 90.18 was 15 points ahead of second-best competitor, and she helped the Russian Olympic Committee team (so called because Russia itself was banned from competing in the Olympics until the end of 2022 for running a state-sponsored doping programme) to take gold.
Watching Valieva’s programme, it was impossible not to be awestruck. Russia has increasingly gravitated towards female skaters who do lots of power jumps, but Valieva brings a lyricism to her performance.
However, later that day, the World Anti-Doping Agency was notified that a banned substance – later revealed to be trimetazidine, a heart medication known to increase endurance – and by rule she should have been banned. What was puzzling was that the sample had been submitted to a lab in Sweden – because Russia is not longer allowed to conduct its own tests – on December 25, and the results only came back six weeks later, when Valieva had already begun her Olympic campaign.
The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada) initially suspended Valieva. Because of this the medal ceremony for the team event was postponed. But Rusada lifted the suspension.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and International Skating Union (ISU) challenged this, and the case went to the Court of Arbitration for Sport which ruled that Valieva should be allowed to compete. Its reasoning was that because of her age, she might only receive a reprimand not a suspension if found guilty (which then begs the question if coaches might specifically prey on minors), and because the delay was not her fault (fair point).
Many skaters were upset that she was allowed to compete in the individual competition. She was expected to take gold, which meant that the other athletes on the podium wouldn’t get a medal ceremony at the games.
In the short programme, Valieva was impressive, and yet she was not herself. She fell during her triple axel and scored the lowest she has all season, though she was still way ahead of the pack. I had seen a flawless performance of this programme during the team event, and yet, she brought a pathos to this performance that moved me.
She came into the free skate competition as the favourite to win gold, with a storm brewing around her. And remember, this is a 15-year-old.
The women’s competition was expected to be a clean sweep for the Russians, with Valieva, Alexandra Trusova and Anna Shcherbakova taking gold, silver and bronze. All three are young, and train at the same skating school run by Eteri Tutberidze, who has been criticised for pushing young skaters – younger female athletes are able to perform high-scoring feats quad jumps – who then bow out of the sport early (e.g. Evgenia Medvedeva and Alina Zagitova, who won silver and gold at the 2018 Winter Games. More on them later).
There were so many goosebump moments among the top 10 in the women’s free skate. Georgia’s Anastasiia Gubanova was balletic. Belgium’s Loena Hendrickx made some errors but her performance was the most memorable for me, with music and movements that were unusual. My favourite female performer of these games was Japan’s Higuchi Wakaba whose performance in the short programme in both the team and individual event was ethereal. Her free skate programme was set to the Lion King, and while I didn’t love it, I admired how she did something completely different from her short programme.
And then we came to the top four. Trusova had planned five quads, performing to Cruella (some have said the choice was music was in reference to her coach, who she split from and then returned to). I found her programme unpleasant to watch, the skating equivalent of ‘wham, bam, no thank you ma’am’. The choreography was entirely sacrificed to the high-scoring jumps, all of which she did not land but which earned her a huge score nevertheless.
She was followed by Japan’s Kaori Sakomoto skating to a feminist “No More Fight Left in Me”, offering a masterclass in how skating at the highest level can be more than the amazing feat of rotating more times in the air.
Then came the reigning world champion Anna Shcherbakova. Described as a fighter, Shcherbakova nailed two quads and six triples in her programme, and managed to retain some artistry in between. There was one unforgettable facial expression change when the music changes from pathos to joy, for example. Shcherbakova is super thin and it amazes me that she can perform some of the jumps that she does, until I realised that being thin is an advantage here.
And finally, there was Valieva, who was really putting on a brave face. Her entire programme was painful to watch and by the end I had tears in my eyes. It was heartbreaking to watch this girl fall on jumps she had landed with elan over and over again in the past. It was terrible to watch her fighting to finish as the soundtrack (appropriately?) of Bolero marched on. It was painful to watch her break down at the end. And to see her coach semi-berate her when she came off the rink (“why did you let it go, explain to me, why, why did you stop fighting?” she apparently asked. Honestly), because it was clear she would not even make bronze.
Trusova was distraught that she had not won gold – again – and Shcherbakova, who frankly deserved to win, cut a lonesome figure.
The whole thing reminded me of the last Olympics (except in reverse) in which Medvedeva was expected to win but Zagitova pipped her to it by doing her jumps in the back end of her programme. Medvedeva, the more lyrical skater, sobbed on camera.
The debate between power versus artistry reminds me of a similar debate in gymnastics. Here, it is the Russians who criticise the Americans – amid Simone Biles’ dominance – of sacrificing grace to power, a critique some say is racist. So I guess I should just shut up about artistry in performance, since I clearly don’t have a problem with Biles’ style of gymnastics.
Both Medvedeva and Zagitova were in Beijing rooting for Valieva from the stands, and looked devastated by how her skate played out. Medvedeva had words of encouragement for all three Russian girls, which Valieva in particular should take to heart. This should not be the end for her.
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The drama surrounding the women’s event should not take away from the spectacular showing that was the pairs event. In the short skate, every single of the last five teams was so on point that the judges would have to be quibbling in choosing between them.
The American pair of Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc, the only out non-binary athlete in the Winter Olympics, skating to The White Crow, was basically art.
In the top three, world champions Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov delivered a flawless programme. Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov basically embodied the myth of Galatea and Pygmalion. Sui Wenjing and Han Cong moved at such an exhilarating tempo that I basically held my breath throughout.
So the final podium was anyone’s guess. A single error could cost a team a medal because the standard was just that high. The free skate, a longer more tiring programme, did see some errors. I could see that the Russians really wanted it, but in the end, Sui and Han landed a well deserved win.
Blasphemously, I think I preferred all the short skate programmes. If you can watch any of them, I highly recommend it.
Did you watch the figure skating? Who were your favourites?