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Kamila Valieva’s doping nightmare should bring coaches and federations under serious scrutiny

The 15-year-old stands accused of a failed drugs test and is at the centre of a storm that she did not create

By James Toney in Beijing | And so the wait goes on and a bewildered child, trapped in a nightmare of someone else’s making, stays centre stage, blinking wide-eyed into the searing spotlight.

Kamila Valieva was always going to be the face of these Games, though this was not what she dreamed when she first strapped on skates just 12 years ago.

In this most subjective of sports you wouldn’t find much argument for saying she was not just the best women’s skater in the world, but the best of all-time.

For the last three days she has practised for a small group of media in an echoing ice hall adjacent to the main Olympic arena. It’s a tremendous privilege to watch her but you leave feeling an overwhelming sense of melancholy.

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There is sadness that the wider world may not to get see what you’ve witnessed and madness at those who have showed a callous dereliction in their duty of care for a 15-year-old child.

What have they become, when winning at all costs comes as such a pernicious price?

In 48 hours we will know whether Valieva will get to live her dream or be thrown out of the Olympics – while those who claim to have her best interests will almost certainly stay put.

What a hot mess here in frigid Beijing, a scandal from which no-one emerges with any credit, with perhaps the only innocent party the one who could be proclaimed guilty.

For a sport brought alive by a kaleidoscope of sequined colours, figure skating has always had a dark heart. There have been tawdry tales in the Olympics before – Tonya and Nancy in Lillehammer and a judging scandal in Salt Lake City linked to Russian organised crime.

But this goes beyond those lows, the world against Russia on the borders of the Ukraine and on the pristine ice of Beijing. There will be no winners in either tale, just collateral damage.

Valieva may skate beyond her years but she looks young for her age, leaving the rink each day clutching her favourite teddy bear.

“As an athlete, you always follow the advice of your confidants, in this case she probably followed her coach and medical team, this wonder child is not to blame here,” said two-time Olympic champion Katarina Witt.

“You are taught from a very young age to trust them, they know what’s right for you and what’s wrong. She has learned her quadruple jumps with infinite diligence and courage, no doping would have helped her to land these and certainly it would not help her with her artistic charisma.

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“The responsible adults should be banned from the sport forever. What they knowingly did to her, if true, cannot be surpassed in inhumanity and makes my athlete’s heart cry infinitely.”

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach has previously expressly expressed concern that athletes are targeted by doping sanctions, while their support staff often escape censure.

“We need zero tolerance for everybody, athletes and entourage,” he told a conference three years ago.

Now it is time to live up to the words, while Russia’s anti-doping agency, which was ruled non-compliant with international rules 14 months ago, has also opened an “investigation”.

Valieva’s coach Eteri Tutberidze, 47, is considered a national hero in Russia, receiving the Order of Honor from Vladimir Putin for coaching a succession of stars, including PyeongChang women’s gold medallist Alina Zagitova. She was also named the International Skating Union’s coach of the year in 2020.

Tutberidze’s training methods are notorious; she demands complete control of her skaters’ lives, with Valieva discussing their relationship last year.

“Eteri knows how to always work, day and night, seven days per week, 12 months per year. I don’t know of any other coach who works so much, she knows me better than anyone else ever will,” she said.

“Everything is very simple, she just fanatically loves figure skating. She is a very creative person, she sees exactly what music and what image will suit this or that athlete, she lives our programs in every detail.

“I was three when I started skating, this has been my life for 12 years. My parents have no days off, no holidays, they’ve given up their life for this dream. It’s my dream, it’s their dream and it’s Eteri’s dream too.”

Unfortunately living vicariously through your children is bad parenting – and appalling coaching too. Whatever happens when this sorry story has run its course, it can never happen again.

Watch all the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 live on discovery+, Eurosport and Eurosport app

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