After the excitement about her doping case, the Russian figure skater Kamila Waliewa fails the freestyle – she comes fourth. As she disappears from the hall, all she says is: “Let me go, let me go!”
from
Barbara Klimke, Beijing
The ice was glittering, the five rings were emblazoned on the boards, and the journalists had already secured the best seats in the stands of the Capital Indoor Arena five hours before the start. Figure skating is always in the keen spotlight of the Olympic Games, and on Thursday too what appeared at first glance to be the kind of free program that occurs every four years in winter; despite the sparsely occupied ranks in Beijing. And yet this finale was unique in its absurdity and questionability because of its main character, Kamila Valiyeva.