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Feb. 10, 2022 — State-sponsored child endangerment?
There is a brewing, and potentially very ugly, scandal brewing at the Beijing Olympics.
The scandal involves the figure skating team representing the Russian Olympic Committee, so-named because years of performance-enhancing drug use has resulted in Russia being ejected from most international competitions including the upcoming World Cup.
The rules, however, allow athletes from Russia to compete if they don’t do so under the Russian flag, which is why you often see the name of the national governing body of the sport (Russian Weightlifting Federation, for example) rather than the name of the country.
The Russian team for figure skating graded out with more points than any other nation after routines from individual men and women, an ice dancing routine, and a pairs free skate. The problem for the ROC team is that one of its women, 15-year-old Kamila Valieva, failed a drugs test back in December.
With apologies to radio personality Dave Ross, let’s read this last sentence real slow.
First off, the subject of this entire controversy is 15 years of age. As such, she is a “protected person” when it comes to certain segments of international statutes, which is why this controversy has been smoldering like a dumpster fire rather than it being over by now.
Second, there was a failure of a drugs test, which should immediately put a number of other athletes from Russia on the figure skating team under greater scrutiny. Valieva, Anna Scherbakova, and Alexandra Trusova have dominated recent competition in International Skating Union competitions. Collectively known as The Quad Squad, they all train under coach Eteri Tutberidze.
The reason that these three young women are called The Quad Squad is because of their ability to land jumps in which the skater makes four revolutions in the air before landing. The performance of all three are likely to be called into question because of the test.
Finally, note that the test in question took place in December. There were several weeks between knowledge of the results of that test and the start of the Beijing Olympics, yet, Valieva was allowed to be part of the team.
It certainly doesn’t look good for Russia, or, indeed, the Olympic movement at large.
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