The number of news, speculations, rumors surrounding Kamila Valieva over the past year has probably exceeded a thousand. The main thing is the doping scandal that unfolded around the young figure skater. The Beijing Olympics could have been Camila’s finest hour (and in terms of sports results, she posted the highest marks), but instead of medals and triumph, the main competitions on the planet gave her condemnation. and suspicion. But despite everything, the skater continues to go on the ice, win national competitions and perform her best jumps.
Kamila Valieva is one of the stars of the Eteri Tutberidze group. She moved to the Sambo-70 sports school in the summer of 2018 and immediately shone – she showed herself brilliantly at junior international starts and won the Junior Grand Prix final in Turin even without ultra-c elements. , then won gold at the Russian championship and world championship.
Photo credit: Sergei Bobylev/TASS
In the 2020/21 season, she debuted in adult competitions in Russia, a year later – on the international stage. The first adult season was the most difficult for the young Valieva of her career.
At the Winter Olympics in Beijing, she made a huge contribution to the gold medal of the Russian team in the team competition. Having won both programs, she became the first European figure skater to land a triple Axel at the Olympics. In personal rentals, Valieva showed an excellent short program, but according to the results, she became only fourth – the stress associated with the doping scandal that broke out around the figure skater was probably affected. During the Games, it became known that Valieva passed a positive doping test in December 2021 at the Russian Championship. For this reason, the figure skater could not be allowed to participate in the free program at all. However, the CAS rejected all appeals. Camila threw herself on the ice. Yes, it did not earn him a prize. But then she showed the world that she wasn’t ready to give up.
Photo credit: Catherine Ivill/Gettyimages
“I watched the Olympic free program three times on purpose, with tears in my eyes. I watched, because I needed to close the gestalt – what it looked like on the outside and what I had inside. And I looked, and I just let go – well, it’s happened before, that’s all. Well, stop thinking about it, ”she said in a recent interview with Maxim Trankov. She also stressed that she wanted to change the situation – she felt a lot of stress due to the fact that she had attracted the attention of the media and that athletes from other teams did not give the skater the nicest looks.
Photo credit: Kirill Kukhmar/TASS
Today, Kamila Valieva is the only single skater who participated in the Beijing Games who continues to compete. This season, the figure skater has collected a large collection of awards: she won the Grand Prix stages twice, won silver at the Russian Championship, and in the final of the National Grand Prix, won the first tournament show jumping, performed two of the most brilliant demonstrations numbers – in the image of the Wednesday of the series of the same name and a shaman at the show programs of the tournament.
Photo credit: Mikhail Tereshchenko/TASS
Valieva is not afraid to be different and to add new elements to its programs, to try new images. A fragile little girl with a rod of steel inside hasn’t shown her all in figure skating yet and won’t be done with the sport.
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