Kamila Valieva, Eteri Tutberidze, and How Russia Will Do Anything For Power

Image courtesy of Unsplash.

It’s no secret that Russia has a pretty shady history when it comes to the Olympics. Due to the controversy surrounding a state-sponsored doping program, the country is currently banned from competing in the Olympics, with its athletes only able to compete under the name, “Russian Olympic Committee.” Still, the country’s Olympic athletes show off the best in Russian talent, discipline, and athletic excellence. However, lurking beneath the surface is the reality of what it means to be a Russian Olympic Committee athlete. The recent revelations about 15-year-old figure skater Kamila Valieva testing positive for a banned substance on a drug test reveals that there is no level the Russian Federation won’t stoop to for the gold medal.

In recent years, women’s figure skating champions are on average significantly younger than champions in other countries. At the 2018 Winter Olympics, the men’s, pairs, and ice dance champions were all nearly a decade older than women’s champion Alina Zagitova, who won at age 15. Women have been retiring much earlier as well. Russian skaters Kamila Valieva, Alexandra Trusova, and Anna Shcherbakova, who competed in the 2022 Olympics and all made their debut this year were aged 17 or younger. Compare this to the three-woman U.S team which features 16-year-old Alysa Liu, 22-year-old Karen Chen (competing in her second Olympics), and 25-year-old Mariah Bell. 

This entire situation can be brought back to one person: renowned Russian coach Eteri Tutberidze. Tutberidze is credited with coaching the women who started the “quad revolution” in women’s skating, producing a high number of female athletes who were able to execute quadruple jumps, a feat long considered to be physically impossible for women.  While men have been able to do quads for years, relying on their genetic disposition for more muscle, Tutberidze seems to have “cracked the code” for women. Her method relies on low body weight and the delayed onset of puberty, making it most effective for very young teenage girls, and much less lucrative for young women. However, Tutberidze’s methods led to injuries and lasting damage to her athlete’s bodies. Most of her athletes begin to decline around age 16-17, after hitting their peak at age 15, leading most of them to retire before the age of 20. 

Training in this way leads to lasting injuries and physical burnout, but it produces medals. At the 2014 Winter Olympics, relatively unknown 15-year-old skater Yulia Lipnitskaya stunned the world with her Free Skate in the team event, skyrocketing her and her coach, Tutberitze, to national fame. Lipnitskaya was hailed as the “future of figure skating”. However, injuries and an eating disorder forced Lipnitskaya into permanent retirement in 2017 at just 17 years old. Flash forward to the 2018 Winter Olympics and 18-year-old Tutberidze student Evgenia Medvedeva was favored to win the gold medal. As we have learned, Tutberidze skaters begin to burn out around 17, and Evgenia’s fellow Team Tutberidze member, 15-year-old Alina Zagitova, is chomping at the bit. In a stunning upset, Zagitova finished just ahead of Medvedeva. In the end, two Tutberidze skaters stood on the Olympic podium, raising Tutberidze’s profile as a coach and Russia’s standings in the world of figure skating. 

Which brings us to the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. On Feb. 7th, 15-year-old Russian skater (and Tutberidze prodigy) Kamila Valieva became the first woman to land a quad on Olympic ice, leading the Russian Olympic Committee to a gold medal in the team event. By Feb. 9th, medals still had not been handed out, and the news broke that Valieva had failed a drug test. As rumors circulated through the media, some said it was marijuana, others said it was the banned heart medication trimetazidine, some said it was a plot by the U.S. to get the gold for themselves. It was not until late on Feb. 10th that the International Testing Agency offered a statement: a sample was taken from Valieva ahead of the 2022 Russian Nationals in January. The results of a drug test did not come back until Feb. 8th and showed a banned substance, identified as trimetazidine, in her system at that time. When the results came back, Valieva was provisionally suspended from all events, including the 2022 Winter Olympics. 

This is an interesting situation, as the sample was taken for a Russian event, and therefore is under the jurisdiction of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), not the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Valieva challenged the provisional suspension in a hearing on Feb. 9th, and the RUSADA Disciplinary committee subsequently lifted the suspension, making Valieva eligible to compete in the ladies’ individual event the next week. The World Anti-Doping Code gives the IOC the right to appeal any decision, which they did. On Feb. 14th, the appeal was denied by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and Valieva was cleared to skate. The decision cited how long it took for the test results to come in, as well as her age, and the impact disqualification would have on a 15-year-old. This sends a pretty harmful message to Eteri Tutberidze and her team, who make a living out of breaking young skaters. This decision makes it seem that it is okay to use prohibited substances, as long as it’s only on young children, because there will be no consequences. This is an extremely dangerous precedent to set, and threatens the integrity of figure skating as a sport. Many figure skaters have come out on social media and in the news in opposition of the decision, including Meryl Davis, Adam Rippon, and Scott Moir.

All this begs the question, why women’s figure skating? What is Russia’s obsession with not simply coming out on top, but filling the podium with Russian skaters by any means necessary? Well, to find that answer we need to look back at the history of women’s figure skating. Since the very inception of the Winter Olympics, the USA has been pretty dominant in women’s figure skating, making the podium almost every year. Some of the best known American figure skaters come from the ladies discipline, such as Tara Lipinski, Nancy Kerrigan, and Michelle Kwan. The U.S reached its peak in the 90’s, producing incredible skaters winning plenty of medals. In recent years, however, the United States has been replaced on the podium by Russia. In addition to the U.S being a dominant force in women’s figure skating, three Asian countries have found a home at the top, including Japan, South Korea, and China. Perhaps Russia’s ambition to remain on top of the podium is some kind of Cold-War-style power-grab against the United States, or perhaps it is some ploy to overpower some of the most powerful countries in the world through the medium of figure skating. Whatever the case, it is clear that women’s figure skating matters in some capacity to the Russian federation, and they will resort to anything to remain on top. The Figure Skating World Championship is set to begin in March, and it will be interesting to see whether Valieva or the whole Russian team is allowed to participate. The decision to allow an athlete with a positive doping test to participate in competitions is unfair to the athletes who compete clean, and the ISU should impose consequences on the Russian team, including (but not limited to) investigating Eteri Tutberidze.