Kamila Valieva failed to win the women’s figure skating in Beijing. The 15-year-old Russian, leading actress in a doping soap, messed up her leading position in the freestyle and ended up next to the Olympic podium.
Valieva fell several times during her free freestyle. Where she still took the lead after the short freestyle, she eventually had to settle for fourth place. Her compatriot Anna Shcherbakova won the gold. Silver went to another Russian, Aleksandra Trusova, and bronze went to Kaori Sakamoto from Japan.
For the first time since 1976 (silver for Diane de Leeuw) a Dutch participant took part in figure skating at the Olympic Games. The 17-year-old Lindsay van Zundert treated the jury and viewers to a beautiful, virtually clear free freestyle and finished in 18th place with a total score of 175.81. There were a total of 25 finalists.
doping soap
The soap opera around Valieva has dominated these Winter Games for a week and a half. Last Monday she won gold in the Nations Cup with the Russian athletes, but this medal was not awarded. The 15-year-old ‘Miss Perfect’ was found to have been caught on the drug Trimetazidine in the run-up to the Games.
Because Valieva is a minor, a shadow play unfolded with leading roles for the IOC and the CAS. And the Russian figure skater herself, of course, who attributes the found drug to a mistake with her grandfather’s heart medication. The outcome was that Valieva was allowed to participate in the individual competition, but that no medals would be awarded here either until the matter has been thoroughly investigated.
That was of course not a nice solution, because it would punish completely innocent participants by not getting a medal at these Games. It is not yet known whether the medal ceremony will take place in this case, now that Valieva has finished next to the podium.
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