BEIJING (Reuters) – Kamila Valieva is accustomed to the eye that comes with being an Olympic gold medal favorite, however she by no means confronted fairly as a lot scrutiny as she did on Thursday morning at a practice rink adjoining to Beijing’s Capital Indoor Stadium.
The 15-year-old, who helped the Russian Olympic Committee(ROC) to gold within the crew occasion at the Beijing Olympics on Monday, now finds herself embroiled in turmoil after Russian media reported she had examined optimistic for a banned substance previous to the Games.
With the medal ceremony for Russia’s profitable efficiency within the ladies’s crew occasion postponed and followers speculating over Valieva’s future at the Games, she nonetheless appeared as scheduled at a practice session, alongside her crew mate Alexandra Trusova.
Her hair in a good bun and wearing practice apparel — black tights underneath padded shorts to melt the affect of falls and a long-sleeved forest inexperienced shirt — Valieva seemed to be a carefree teenager when she hit the ice.
Under the watchful eyes of her teaching workers led by Eteri Tutberidze, Valieva effortlessly landed a sequence of triple jumps as she warmed up alongside Trusova and Anastasia Gubanova, a Russian-born skater who represents Georgia.
Valieva smiled and giggled as she consulted together with her coaches at rink facet and clapped when Trusova landed the jumps within the run-through of her free skate. But her expression turned solemn when it was time for her to rehearse her personal free skate.
Valieva glided to the centre of the ice as the primary notes of Maurice Ravel’s Bolero resounded by way of the practice rink.
She fell on her opening bounce, a quadruple Salchow, earlier than cleanly touchdown a quad toeloop together earlier than falling on one other quad toeloop as the orchestral music escalated to its finale. Valieva turned the primary girl to finish a quad bounce at an Olympics throughout her groups profitable efficiency on Monday.
After skating alongside Valieva at practice, Gubanova stated she was shocked by the experiences swirling across the brightest star of the Russian Olympic crew.
“It could be very unlucky for her if one thing dangerous occurs due to this,” Gubanova stated.
Valieva was the final of three skaters to depart the ice, which was already being resurfaced by two fire-truck crimson Zambonis when she skated in direction of the exit.
With her skates nonetheless on, Valieva swiftly walked by way of the practice facility’s blended zone, clutching her belongings tightly and shaking her head no as she appeared all the way down to dodge questions from reporters.
And with that, she exited probably the most anticipated coaching session of her life.
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Michael Perry)
