Barcelona“Why did you stop fighting? triple axel You have stopped fighting! “Eteri Tutberidze told Kamila Valíeva. The 15-year-old skater had finished her free practice at the Olympics. The first woman to make a quadruple jump in an Olympic event, she was trying to win gold despite having tested positive for doping in a check last December, the pressure was too much for Valíeva, who fell once, and she needed the With the help of his hand, touching the ice, to avoid falling more blows. his coach, Eteri Tutberidze, tore his ears. “It was a very harsh image. How can it be so cold? ”Complained International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach.
“Instead of consoling her, he was very distant from her,” said Bach, who, without quoting Tutberidze’s name, turned his criticism on her, trying to excuse Valeva in some way. “It is worrying that a 15-year-old girl is under pressure. It is not easy to live with these facts, it is a traumatic experience,” said the German, who advocated that Valeva be sanctioned for doping, but at the same time pointed out as true. the coaches of the Russian Federation are to blame. “Doping rarely happens on its own, teams attend it, initiate it or even impose it,” Bach argues.
The IOC, in fact, demanded the expulsion of Valíeva from the Games when she heard of the positive, but a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) allowed the Kazan-born girl to try to win individual gold, based on -in principle that you should try to do as little harm as possible. That is, if the skater could defend her innocence in the ongoing analysis and investigation, which will be closed in the coming months, it would have been unfair to have taken her out without being able to compete for medals. On the other hand, if they let it compete, the result could always be annulled if the positive was confirmed. “Our means to fight in a case like this are limited. We are not the police, we cannot conduct interrogations and our sanctions have limited power. For these situations, we need the support of governments,” Bach complained. without mentioning the Russian government. In 2014, the Russian government was one of the actors that created a network to hide the systematic doping of athletes during the Sochi Winter Olympics. The lab hid and destroyed evidence, if necessary, in a case that came to light when Moscow’s anti-doping lab director Grigory Rodchenko escaped to the United States. Since then, Russian sport has received sanctions and, in fact, competes in these games under the name of Russian Olympic athletes. The Russian flag and anthem are not yet welcome, to the Olympic family.
Valeva tested positive for trimetazidine, a drug for angina pectoris listed by the World Anti-Doping Agency’s banned products, in an anti-doping test conducted in late December, although the results were not known until on February 8, when he had already won gold for the Russian delegation in figure skating for teams. Valeva, a person protected under the age of 16, is still subject to positive disciplinary proceedings. In the coming months he could receive a two-year sanction without competing, right after a few Games where he has been left off the podium. The podium was crowned by two Russians also trained by Tutberidze, Anna Cherbakova and Aleksandra Trusova. Trusova, silver medalist, exploded after the final, explaining: “I’ve done everything to win these last few years and I never win, everyone has a gold except me. I’m the type, I can’t take it anymore.” Both Cherbakova and Trusova are 17 years old. And the former has won all state and international competitions in recent years, ahead of Trusova. “It’s not normal for these girls to be under pressure when they’re so young. Tutberidze has given talks where he says the body of a 15-year-old girl is ideal for skating. She’s working with younger girls. Many leave her at 18 “It’s a tough case, because Valíeva’s talent is undeniable. This girl has magic, but how do you justify a 15-year-old girl?” years be treated like that, with doping and psychological pressures so hard in the middle? “, he added. Tutberidze’s long shadow has tarnished the Games.
He survived an attack in the United States
Such a controversial coach that the International Skating Federation is considering raising the minimum age to compete at the absolute level, now from 15 to 17. To protect some of the disciples of a woman who has been awarded by the Kremlin, but also by the International Skating Federation in 2020 as the best coach of the year. “Valeva is innocent, she is a pure girl,” Tutberidze told Russian state television. “It’s not an opinion, it’s an axiom. We don’t have to prove anything, it’s innocent.” The coach does not usually give interviews to media outside of Russia.
But who is Tutberidze? His name, in a strange script twist, appears on a wall with the list of victims of an attack on a government building in Oklahoma City, United States, on April 19, 1995. A far-right fanatic Timothy McVeigh planted a bomb that killed 168 people. Tutberidze, who was living in the city’s YMCA at the time, right in front of the attacked building, was slightly injured, so his name appeared on the list of victims of what was then the worst terrorist attack in history. of the United States. Now considered an enemy of American sport, which has a law that allows them to bring to justice those who use tactics such as doping to harm their athletes, Tutberidze received $ 1,800 from the state for being a victim. . With the money he bought a car so he could train in more places. He lived for a few years in San Antonio, Texas, where his daughter, Diana Davis, who is now part of the Russian figure skating team, was born.
Moscow-born Tutberidze, the daughter of a taxi driver of Armenian descent, had excelled as a skater, but a serious back injury ended her career. In the early 1990’s, fleeing poverty after the fall of the USSR, she emigrated to the United States, where she participated in ice skating shows in Las Vegas or in hotels, a job she combined with that of a children’s coach. and girls. And that was his passion. After a few years improving as a coach, she returned to Russia to work for the local federation, where she has forged a new generation of champions.
In 2014, 15-year-old Julia Lipnitskaya, in a free exercise where she appeared to be wearing a red coat, won the gold medal. In 2018, in Pyeongchang, the winner of the gold was another 15-year-old girl, Alina Zagitova, ahead of the then world champion, 18-year-old Russian Evgenia Medvedeva. Now, Anna Cherbakova and Alexandra Trusova have taken the podium. All from Lipnitskaya to Valeva, trained by Tutberidze. The last three Olympic champions, all minors, have passed through their hands. In fact, the last seven Russian champions have passed through their school, located on a track called Samb0-70 in Moscow. All these young champions, by the way, tend to retire very young. Zagitova left at 17 and Lipnitskaya at 19. Tutberidze’s methods have been called into question as she works with a doctor, Filipp Shvetsky, who was fined in 2007 for doping athletes on the Russian rowing team. Or to tell skaters not to eat too much, and to criticize them if they gain weight. She is also criticized for confronting skaters with each other, and making some feel frustrated, like Trusova. Evgenia Medvedeva has explained how, at the age of 8, Tutberidze dragged her on the ice or covered her with snow because she fell a lot when she jumped. “If you like to fall on the ice so much, then we’ll put you under the ice,” he shouted.
Tutberidze’s methods have led the International Skating Federation to put on the agenda of a congress this June the possibility of setting at 17 the minimum age to compete at the absolute level. Russia has publicly defended Tutberidze’s work. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov himself said: “I respect the words of the IOC president, but we have a different opinion. He does not like the harshness of our coaches, but everyone knows that you have to be tough if you want to win. “And at our level, our athletes are getting victories. We are proud of them. At certain levels, only the strongest can succeed.” Tutberidze believes that at 15 you can be the strongest. At the IOC, where little by little they have come to understand that care must be taken of athletes beyond success, they doubt it.
