In return to ice, Kamila Valieva was mostly sublime. But she was not Valieva

Opinion

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This article was published 14/02/2022 (1044 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BEIJING She will always be the girl with the ghost medal, a tragic figure.

If Russian teenager Kamila Valieva wins Olympic gold here on Thursday — because even when she’s imperfect, she’s brilliant — there will be no medal ceremony. Not for her and, as drive-by victims, not for the other two figure skating podium finishers either. It’s all too pending, too pendulous, too hanging fire.

And they’d have to take it away from her later, should the doping case against Valieva be substantiated down the road. Best not to even let her touch it.

But if the sports authorities get all mushy about the teen’s guilt, find an exculpating wedge of amnesty, just as the Court of Arbitration for Sport did on Monday — examining the dilemma through a very narrow lens of culpability and allowing the shy adolescent to compete in Tuesday’s short program despite testing positive for a banned substance — then the medal (medals) will be yielded later. Still radiating toxicity, though, tainted rather than burnished.

As spectral in her possession at some future date as it is phantom-like now: the gold she’ll probably win and the gold she’s already won in the team event.

Can it ever bring her pleasure or would it burn her fingers?

The fingers she laced together and held over her eyes at the end of her “In Memoriam” program on Tuesday evening, covering her tears, the strain of the past few days finally breaking through.

We need reminding, maybe, that this is a child and the ordeal she’s experiencing is akin to child abuse.

Even if you believe her guilty, a knowing participant in the kind of performance-enhancing skulduggery that has Russia written all over it. Although that strains credibility, it just does. (Her lawyers claimed at the six-hour hearing that there was some kind of innocent contamination from a drug Valieva’s grandfather takes.) If deliberately pressed upon her, what might Valieva know of what she was given, told to take? Just some benign substance, hush girl. A stimulant, prescribed to treat angina in old people and prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Which would not have had any impact on the exquisite skating talent that is equally distinctive — the quality of her spins, the flexibility, the intricacy — to the jumping prowess she has manifested, the quads that had never been landed by a female at the Olympics before last week.

There was no quad in the short program. There was, however, a triple axel and she missed it. Didn’t fall, stepped out on the landing however and barely held on, receiving a minus-2.74 grade of execution. Missed it twice in the warm-up too. And that’s just not Valieva, so she must be feeling it, the pressure, the scrutiny, the coolness from other skaters, even if few would offer any comment when pressed by reporters.

But everything else was sublime — the triple lutz-triple toe combination, the triple flip, Level 4s on her change-foot spin, step sequence, flying camel spin and layback, earning a first-place score of 82.16, well out in front of the field, including teammate Anna Shcherbakova, the reigning world champion, sitting silver at 80.60, with Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto third at 79.89 – breaking up the Quad Squad, as the trio of Russian teenagers are known, Alexandra Trusova the other member. Trusova fell on her triple axel and is currently fourth but well within medal-striking range.

The three of them — all coached by the embattled Eteri Tutberidze, accused of driving her charges into a jumping frenzy by pushing fanatically hard, multiple former champions who’ve soared and then crumpled physically — came to Beijing as odds-on favourite to sweep the podiums, as they did at the European championships last month. A 15-year-old, Valieva the youngest skater at the Games, and two 17-year-olds.

On top Valieva may be, but she’s not looking like a champion at the moment. She looks like a stricken young girl.

Dozens of reporters waited for her in the mixed zone afterwards, but she came through the gauntlet without speaking, without even raising her eyes. Nor did she appear at the press conference that followed, which is apparently not mandatory except for after the free program. Valieva’s national organizing committee “have chosen not bring Kamila,” the conference monitor told media gathered.

The only words the teen has spoken was on Monday, to Russia’s Channel 1. “These (past few) days have been very difficult for me. It’s as if I don’t have any emotions left. I am happy but at the same time I am emotionally tired.”

She added that adult life “can be unfair to some extent.”

But she’d certainly know of the condemnation on social media, the cacophony of displeasure, admittedly largely aimed at CAS for permitting her to compete.

Most of the other participants wouldn’t bite, though everyone is acutely aware of the controversy, which is denying them their moment in the fallout.

“I know this is happening, but I know nothing of the truth,’’ protested Sakamoto, when asked about it. “I can’t comment on this. Do I feel sorry for her? I don’t think so, I wouldn’t say so.”

Shcherbakova said tersely: “I will not say anything about it, sorry.”

But what of the medals, and not getting one if she earned it? “It’s too early to speak about medals.”

She did, however, defend her coach Tutberidze. “I am in her group since I was nine. Until this day I have been training under her. If I’m not changing the coach, it means I like the coach. We are very fruitful and achieve a lot.”

Madeline Schizas, Canada’s sole entrant in the women’s competition — she scored 60.53, far off the personal-best 69.60 from the team event, but she’s in 20th place and qualifying easily for the free skate — wasn’t keen to engage on the subject either. “It’s not my job as an athlete to evaluate that. That’s somebody else’s job, somebody from WADA or whatever.”

There can’t be much joy in this for Valieva. Her only smile on Tuesday, after the skate, was tremulous.

On the ice, she makes the impossible look effortless. Off the ice, I suspect the trauma of these Games, for Kamila Valieva, will drag on long after the Olympic flame is extinguished.

Rosie DiManno is a Toronto-based columnist covering sports and current affairs for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @rdimanno