The world watched as Kamila Valiyeva broke under immense pressure. At first, no one offered her comfort. That also “disturbed” Thomas Bach – but the IOC boss could have acted earlier.
The freestyle in figure skating offered pure drama. In focus: the Russian athlete Kamila Valiewa. Under the pressure of the past few days, she gave up the lead and ended up missing out on a medal. After her competition, she was completely devastated. The trainer seemed ice cold. At first she didn’t hug her protégé. At first there was no consolation for the 15-year-old – despite all the hustle and bustle. IOC President Thomas Bach also found this “terrifying” (read more here). He was “disturbed” and is now open to a minimum age at the Olympic Games. Bach said, “We started thinking about it in the executive branch.” To be honest, this statement comes a little late. And she’s just hypocritical.
He could have acted long ago
Because if anyone could have acted sooner, it would be him. Bach has been President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) since 2013. The 15-year-old Russian figure skater Julia Lipnitskaya won the team competition at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. At the age of 18 she ended her career because of anorexia. Something similar happened in Pyeongchang in 2018: Alina Zagitova won the singles at the age of 15. You don’t hear anything from her either. Although there was no suspicion of doping at the time, as in the Valiyeva case, Lipnitskaya’s fate alone was a clear warning. But that was ignored.
Kamila Valiewa: The Russian figure skater burst into tears after her freestyle. (Source: Kyodo News/imago images)
It was only now, after the whole world had watched Valiyeva collapse under the pressure, that Bach commented on possible reforms. An age limit to protect young athletes. It took Kamila Valiewa, who was “thrown to the world to eat,” as Katarina Witt put it, to bring about a rethink. He should have avoided that – and communicated it that way. It should be clear that Bach must follow his words with deeds.
Too much time passed
And this faster than in the Russian doping scandal after the Sochi Games in 2014. Because it took time before the Russian National Olympic Committee was suspended and Russian athletes started at the Olympic Games under a neutral flag. Too much time. At the Rio 2016 Summer Games, Bach defended his course of not excluding the Russian Olympic team. Since Pyeongchang there has been a neutral flag under which Russian athletes can participate. The formal ban for Russia is valid until the end of this year. Criticism has been voiced that this would not change the system behind it. That more needs to be done, since many supervisors and trainers from the state doping system are still active. However, IOC President Bach is keeping a low profile. He prefers to avoid conflict.
The Valiyeva scandal and the question of an age limit for Olympic athletes are by no means the only cases in which Bach’s intervention is not only important, but long overdue.