A Bright Future That Crashed and Burned - Thoughts on Kamila Valieva

If you're tired of hearing or reading about the figure skating controversy, skip today's blog post. But I'm taking the time today to express my opinion - not necessarily shared by you or the rest of the world, just mine. 

 DH and I watched the finals of the Women's Individual Skating event last night. I can't help but feel sorry for Kamila Valieva, who had a terrible performance for her final time in the spotlight of her competitive life. I've seen her do this routine flawlessly - even here at the Olympics when she performed it for the Teams Competition a bit over a week ago. When she's on form, she's stunning and startlingly breakthrough. She was anything BUT on form last night. 

Kamila Valieva is only fifteen years old. It's hard 
to realize how many years she's already put into 
skating, and it all crashed down around her head 
in less than two months total. 

It was quite obvious the pressures and back-talk of the last few days had really gotten to her. When she came into the Games, she was the shoo-in for the Gold Medal, having proved herself in International competition over the previous two years. After the news of her positive drug test result from tests taken late last year hit, her entire foundation was shaken. Although I feel very sorry for her - she's only 15 years old, after all - there's a lot of blame to spread around. 

Final rulings are up to the IOC, and they 
sat on their hands a bit with this. They should 
have insisted that she was pulled from 
competition immediately upon finding 
out about her positive drug test. Their own 
rules state that anyone who has a positive 
drug test must withdraw from competition. 

What basically happened, however, is the worst possible result. Within a short time, her career has crashed and burned. She will forever be known for that positive drug test, not the fact that she was the first female skater to have five quad-rotation jumps in her program. She's got her top awards from other competitions, but that gold Olympic medal is forever beyond her grasp now. 

It's never enjoyable to see a young person 
crash and burn. It's disturbing for an older 
person as well, but when a young life is ruined 
within a short time span on international 
television ... let's just admit that this was 
a very bad thing for the young woman. 

She'll return back to the Soviet Union and fade into obscurity. If she's lucky, she might get a job as a coach for up-and-coming future stars. If she's unlucky, I foresee very bad things in her future. Her family, of course, will also be affected. In the Russian system, they might have to leave their current residence and move to the hinterlands of Russia. Since she's only 15 years old, and has a lot of hormones playing with growth spurts, thoughts of suicide might pass through her and perhaps, become reality. We may never know for sure because she's probably going to fall off the publicity bus and fade away. 

Of course I feel sorry for her, but I blame the adults 
in this situation for presenting her with the option 
of taking the drugs in the first place. She's far from 
blameless, but that blame can be shared. 

I blame the adults in this situation. I blame them for many things, but most of all, I blame them for not having pulled her out of the Olympic competition immediately when news of the blood test first hit. If it had been acknowledged and she had been pulled out of the competition, she might have been able to recapture her career in time to compete at the 2026 Olympics. She would only be 19 then, so still able to compete at top condition. I highly doubt that will happen now, though. 

I'm happy to spread the blame around, and I'm happy 
to point fingers in many different directions, but 
she should have been pulled from competition 
immediately after the results of the blood test 
became public. 

The Olympics are famous for the height of achievement and the elation of the athletes who achieve a life-long dream. The opposite side of that coin - the crushing darkness of defeat - is rarely pictured. For most of these athletes, the Olympics are one more competition in a long row of competitive events. But there's a shimmer that accompanies the Olympics.  You get the world-wide audience watching where they won't go out of their way for the Nationals or the Worlds. Fair? Not really, but very understandable. On that note, I'm out of here. I have a lot on my agenda today - no real rest for my "day off". I'll be back tomorrow. Have a truly excellent day!