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IOC president disturbed by Valieva's meltdown, hits out at entourage

  • Posted Feb 18, 2022 12:09 by Anthony Ellis
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INTERNATIONAL: Olympic chief Thomas Bach said on Friday it had been "chilling" to witness Russian teenage skater Kamila Valieva crumble under pressure at the Beijing Olympics as a doping scandal continued to swirl, hitting out at the 15-year-old's entourage.

Valieva, who had been leading the women's figure skating event after the short programme, cracked in her free skate on Thursday night, and stumbled down to fourth place as compatriot Anna Shcherbakova skated to gold.

"I must say I was very, very disturbed yesterday when I watched the competition on TV," Bach told a news conference. The saga has opened a debate on the suitability of the Olympic environment for minors, but Bach said the International Olympic Committee had limited means of action.

Valieva failed a doping test at her national championships last December but the result was only revealed on Feb. 8, a day after Valieva had already helped the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) win the team event.

"To see her struggling on the ice, to see her, how she tries to compose herself again, how then she tries to finish her programme and you could see in every movement, in the body language, you could feel that this is immense, immense mental stress and maybe she would have preferred to just leave the ice and try to leave this story behind her," said Bach.

Valieva left the ice hiding tears behind her hands and sobbed in the 'kiss and cry' area as her coach, Eteri Tutberidze, confronted her. "Why did you let it go? Explain it to me, why? Why did you stop fighting completely? Somewhere after the axel you let it go," Tutberidze said.

"When I afterwards saw how she was received by her close entourage... it was chilling to see this," said Bach. "Rather than giving her comfort, rather than to try to help her you could feel this chilling atmosphere, this distance and if you were interpreting the body language of them, it got even worse because this was even some kind of dismissive gestures. "All of this does not give me much confidence in Kamila's closest entourage."

Bach admitted that the IOC, while it was addressing the matter, could not do much to control an athlete's entourage. "In the end, it's a question where we need the support of governments."


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