Kamila Valieva earned a surprising finish in the women’s figure skating final in the Winter Olympics. The 15-year-old skater came in fourth place after turning in her worst performance in the Winter Games, according to CBS Sports. Valieva fell several times in the competition, falling twice on her quad attempts while also slipping on four occasions during her performance. This comes after Valieva was cleared on Monday to compete following a positive test for a banned substance.
After the competition, Valieva was seen crying. Her teammate, Alexandra Trusova, 17, and Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto, 21 were also crying for different reasons, according to PEOPLE. Trusova won the silver medal in the event, while Sakamoto earned bronze. “I haven’t been winning major events for three years. I always try to reach a goal, I always add more quads,” Trusova told reporters, according to Reuters. “And when I get to that, I will win. This didn’t happen, that’s why I was upset.”
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For Sakamoto, it was tears of joy for finishing third. “I don’t have the big jumps as others would have, which is a big handicap,” she told reporters after, per the Associated Press. “That means I had to have perfect elements.” Valieva’s journey to the Olympics was not an easy one, and it ends in disappointment. It was revealed she tested positive for a banned heart medication called trimetazidine in December. But the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) allowed her to compete.
“The panel considered that preventing the athlete to compete at the Olympic Games would cause her irreparable harm in the circumstances,” CAS Director-General Matthieu Reeb said in a statement, per the AP. Olympic medalist and NBC commentator Tara Lipinski felt for Valieva and blamed the adults for not putting her in a good situation.
“I can’t imagine how tough this has been on Kamila and it makes me angry that the adults around her weren’t able to make better decisions and guide her and be there for her because she’s the one now dealing with the consequences and she’s just 15 and that’s not fair,” she said. “But again, that being said, she should not have been allowed to skate.” The controversy led to the U.S. figures skaters getting Olympic torches instead of silver medals for finishing second in the team event. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided not to have medal ceremonies in which Valieva made the podium. Valieva earned a gold medal as the Russia Olympic Committee earned a gold medal in the team event.
