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Kamila Valiyeva: The favorite was fourth
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ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT / AFP
The Kremlin has responded to statements by IOC chief Thomas Bach about Russian figure skater Kamila Valiyeva and those around her.
»Thomas Bach is the highest authority in sport and heads the IOC.
Therefore we take his opinion with respect.
But we don't necessarily agree with him," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of Bach, who is on good terms with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"He doesn't like the toughness of our coaches, but everyone knows that toughness is the key to victory in top-level sport," he said.
“We see our athletes winning.
So let's be proud of them, let's congratulate our medal winners.
Valiyeva was fourth, but in top-level sport, the strongest wins.«
The President of the International Olympic Committee had previously expressed his sympathy for Valiyeva after her dramatic fourth-place Olympic final and criticized the environment with coach Eteri Tutberidze.
"When I saw her being received by those around her with what seemed to me like extreme chills - chills ran down my spine to see what was happening," Bach said.
"Instead of comforting her, instead of helping her after everything that had happened, you felt an ice-cold atmosphere and distance."
After the doping whirlwind, the 15-year-old gold favorite Waliyewa made several mistakes in her freestyle on Thursday evening and finished fourth.
She initially received no consolation from coach Tutberidze, although apparently moved.
Bach said he was "very disappointed and upset" when he watched the figure skating competition on TV.
"Can you be so callous towards your own athletes?"
»That drives the athletes with their fighting spirit«
Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko also reacted to the statements, and more sharply than the Kremlin spokesman.
"We are deeply disappointed to see an IOC President spinning his own fictional narrative about our athletes' feelings and then presenting them publicly as the voice of the IOC," he told industry service insidethegames.
He called Bach's words "inappropriate and wrong."
For all athletes, the Olympic Games are the »highlight of professional sport«, combined with »the hopes and dreams of an entire nation«.
This is a "known pressure for the athletes, and that's what drives them with their fighting spirit," he said.
mon/dpa/sid/Reuters
