Olympics 2022
Falls and tears: figure skater Valiewa tragically fails in the freestyle
Kamila Valiewa was completely beside herself in the freestyle
© Anne-Christine Poujoulat / AFP
The pressure was too great: the Russian figure skater Kamila Valiewa failed dramatically in the freestyle at the Olympic Games. The gold favorite and “miracle runner”, who has been criticized for alleged doping, fell several times and finished fourth.
Kamila Valiyeva almost tragically failed in her freestyle figure skating singles routine and missed out on a medal as the big favorite, although she was still in the lead after the short program. She finished in the thankless fourth place after days of hype surrounding her doping offense.
Gold went to the Russian world champion Anna Schcherbakova with 255.95 points. Silver went to her teammate Alexandra Trusowa, bronze went to the Japanese Kaori Sakamoto. The 15-year-old Valiewa showed nerves and failed several times in the freestyle. She fell during the quadruple salchow and the quadruple toe loop didn’t quite work either.
Katharina Witt: “That was irresponsible”
When the last note of Maurice Ravel’s “Bolero” faded away shortly before 10 p.m. local time, Valiyeva clapped her hands over her face. “She should have been protected. She was a shadow of herself,” analyzed the former figure skater and current ARD expert Katharina Witt. Witt called it “irresponsible” that the 15-year-old was sent onto the Olympic ice after the past few days.
With this result it is also clear that there will be a medal ceremony. The International Olympic Committee had announced that the result would be considered provisional and given an asterisk. The background is the positive doping test Valiyewas, who had previously led the Russian team to gold in Beijing.
Doping offense only became known after team competition
The doping offense from December only became known after the team final. The medal presentation for the teams was therefore cancelled. The International Court of Arbitration for Sport Cas had allowed the European champion in an urgent procedure to also take part in the women’s singles. The IOC decided that there will be no award ceremony even if Valiyeva wins another medal. In the main, however, the case has not yet been decided. The problem of awarding individual medals is now off the table. Shcherbakova showed a fabulous freestyle in which the balance of technique and artistic design became a wonderful whole. Although she only showed two quadruples, she earned gold.
Jumping wonder Trusowa showed the most difficult technical program for women at the Olympic Games with five quadruple jumps – but all this at the expense of ice art and expressiveness.
Things did not go well for German champion Nicole Schott. The 25-year-old from Essen dropped from 14th place to 17th after the short program. In 2018 in Pyeongchang she was 18. After Schott had put the combination of the triple flip and toe loop perfectly on the ice, she fell on the second triple flip. In addition, she had to support herself with the triple Salchow with her hand. “It could have gone better, but nobody cares if you finish fourteenth or eighteenth,” she said.