A terrible explosion.
For nearly five minutes, the world witnessed the live collapse of a 15-year-old skater.
Crushed by the pressure and the consequences of a positive doping control.
These Beijing Games should have been the advent of Kamila Valieva.
The consecration of a meteoric rise, she who was world junior champion just two years ago, before making her international senior debut only in October 2021. But what a start with a world record of points ( 249.24), which she improved a few weeks later (265.08) to ultimately win the title of European Champion.
The royal road to Beijing and a first Olympic title announced.
Before the situation completely escapes him and triggers a huge mess...
To discover
The Olympic medal table: Norway already in the lead, France unlocks its counter
Full results of the 2022 Winter Olympics
The complete program of the Beijing Olympics 2022
The whole story, or rather the scandal, began on February 8, when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to postpone the medal ceremony for the mixed team event, won by Russia and a Kamila Valieva leaping, first skater to land several quadruple jumps during an Olympic program.
Reason given for this decision?
“
Legal issues
“, according to the governing body.
But very quickly, the Russian press echoed the real reason: the positive test of its young star for a substance, trimetazidine, used to relieve angina pectoris and banned by the AMA since 2014, because it would improve blood flow.
Information made official on February 11 by the ITA, in charge of doping controls during the Games.
Except that this control did not take place in Beijing, but on December 25 during the Russian Championships in Saint Petersburg…
Suspense, questions and action
Then began the series of these Games.
With all the elements of a good Hollywood movie, but in a Russian version.
Namely suspense – will Valieva be allowed to compete for the individual event in time –;
questions – why on earth did the Stockholm laboratory accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) take so long to notify the Russian Olympic Committee of the result?
–;
twists – the Russian's test would show traces of two other medicinal substances that can be used to treat heart problems according to the
New York Times
–;
and finally action, emotion with the Russian's short program on Tuesday, which she finished in the lead, but not without a few tears, she who had confided to Russian television "
be happy but emotionally tired
”.
His only words so far.
Locked in an ivory tower, protected (or muzzled, some will mock) by her trainer with a sulphurous reputation, Eteri Tutberidze, the teenager then tried to turn her back to focus on the athlete.
But most certainly at her age, she was not able to face such a media storm.
Which gave rise to a free program that looked like an elevator for the scaffold for a Kamila Valieva at the height of stress.
If the Russian managed to pass her first quadruple, the mechanics, usually so oiled and imperturbable, seized up from the triple axel with a hesitant reception.
Without knowing it yet, it was only a lesser evil.
Or the beginning of an inexorable descent into hell.
Thus, the continuation turned to Berezina.
A first fall deprived it of the expected gold.
A second made him drink the chalice to the dregs.
Total disillusionment
Once Ravel's Bolero was over, Kamila Valieva struggled to hold back her tears.
An eminently painful moment for her, but also to watch.
Eteri Tutberidze spoke to her a few words in the Kiss and Cry while she was waiting for her note, without it being known whether they were words of comfort or sharp criticism.
Then came the penalty: fourth.
Behind her two compatriots, Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova, but also nine points less than the Japanese Kaori Sakamoto.
For a total of 224.09 points, forty units lower than what it is capable of producing under normal conditions.
The disappointment was total.
This failure ultimately had only one advantage: the medal ceremony will take place this Friday.
While waiting for it to be established whether Kamila Valieva did doping or not, which could take several months, the IOC had decided not to award the Olympic medals for the women's event if ever the Russian skater finished in the first three. by putting an asterisk next to the results, "
considered not final as long as the procedure continues
", explained its spokesman Mark Adams on Wednesday.
A decision that caused a lively controversy.
Today partly extinct.
But without predicting the guilt or innocence of the 15-year-old girl, this whole story will leave a deep and indelible taste of bitterness.
French medals at the Beijing Olympics
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