For anybody surprised about those ‘marquee tent’ moments, as an ABC journalist crudely termed them, the Olympics is as much about torment as it is about achievement. The torment is very much reserved for the athlete, the achievement reserved for officialdom and media and spectator consumption.
Athletes are told to perform, to endure brutal physical regimens, in some cases take substances (legal or otherwise), all designed to win, to, in other words, excel. For their intimate torturers, they have their coaches. As their distant inquisitors, they have their sporting organisations and the scrutinising members of the fourth estate. These principles apply irrespective of country or system.
Such misery was offered in spades, and skates, with the failure of skater Kamila Valieva to win a medal spot in her event. The cruel fact is that it would not have mattered. On February 7, Valieva, already moving into the realm of legend in representing the Russian Olympic Committee at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, completed a quadruple jump. In doing so, she became the first woman to achieve that feat.
Two days later, it was reported in Russian media that she had failed a drug test prior to the Games commencement. A routine sample taken after victory in the Russian Nationals in December 2021 showed a positive test for trimetazidine, a drug on the banned list of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). It was subsequently claimed she had tested positive for hypoxen and L-carnitine, neither of which is on the banned list.
The picture became more disturbing. The Court of Arbitration (CAS) had given permission to Valieva to compete at the Beijing Olympics even as investigations into the alleged drug taking were ongoing. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Skating Union (ISU) and WADA argued that she should be disqualified. But the CAS noted Valieva’s status as a minor and being under the age of 16, acknowledging her ‘protected persons’ status under the World Anti-Doping Code.
There was very little done in the way of ensuring Valieva’s ‘protected person’ status was respected. Attention shifted to the ROC team, the skater’s parents and her coach, the renowned Eteri Tutberidze. Famed for her brutal methods and producing young skating superstars with brief careers, Tutberidze hectored a tearful Valieva after the skater left the ice. ‘Why did you let it go? Why did you stop fighting? Explain to me. Why?’
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