BEIJING (Reuters) -The Kremlin on Friday responded to comments by the Olympic chief, in which he said he was “disturbed” watching Russian teen skater Kamila Valieva crumble under pressure and hit out at the 15-year-old’s coach for her “chilling” reaction.
In a press conference earlier on Friday, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach said he had been “disturbed” watching Valieva’s error-filled fourth place performance in the women’s single Thursday night.
Bach also said he was confounded by her coach’s harsh reaction afterwards and called for governments to look into the role of entourages around young athletes.
The Kremlin hit back by saying that the harshness of Valieva’s coach won medals.
“Thomas Bach is a very authoritative person in the sports world. Of course we respect his opinion but we do not necessarily agree with him,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call later on Friday.
“He doesn’t like the harshness of our coaches but everybody knows that the harshness of a coach in high-level sport is key for their athletes to achieve victories.
“And we are seeing that the athletes are achieving victories. So let’s be proud of our winners, congratulate our medallists. Valieva was fourth but in high-level sport, the strongest wins.”
Valieva, who had been leading the women’s figure skating event after the short programme, cracked in her free skate on Thursday night, and stumbled down to fourth place as compatriot Anna Shcherbakova skated to gold.
The 15-year-old failed a doping test at her national championships last December but the result was only revealed on Feb. 8, a day after Valieva had already helped the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) win the team event.
She was cleared to compete in the event despite a doping scandal hanging over her and the Games.
HIGH PRESSURE
“I must say I was very, very disturbed yesterday when I watched the competition on TV,” Bach told a news conference. “How high the pressure on her must have been.”
“To see her struggling on the ice, to see her, how she tries to compose herself again, how then she tries to finish her programme and you could see in every movement, in the body language, you could feel that this is immense, immense mental stress and maybe she would have preferred to just leave the ice and try to leave this story behind her.”
Valieva left the ice hiding tears behind her hands and sobbed in the ‘kiss and cry’ area as her coach, Eteri Tutberidze, who received a state award from Russia president Vladimir Putin after the 2018 Olympics, confronted her.
“Why did you let it go? Explain it to me, why? Why did you stop fighting completely? Somewhere after the axel you let it go,” Tutberidze said.
That reaction confounded Bach, who said, it was “extremely important” to look into Valieva’s entourage.
“When I afterwards saw how she was received by her close entourage … it was chilling to see this,” said Bach.
“Rather than giving her comfort, rather than to try to help her you could feel this chilling atmosphere, this distance and if you were interpreting the body language of them, it got even worse because this was even some kind of dismissive gestures.”
GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
The saga has opened a debate on the suitability of the Olympic environment for minors, but Bach said the IOC had limited means of action.
“We see we have extremely limited means to address it,” he said. “We are not the police, we cannot interrogate and have a formal prosecution procedure; and our sanctions are extremely limited.
“In the end, it’s a question where we need the support of governments.”
WADA has said it was launching an investigation into Valieva’s entourage, which also includes, among others, figure skating team doctor Filipp Shvetsky, who in the past had been suspended for doping athletes.
Bach also said the IOC would also look into the rules applying to minors at competitions as Valieva was cleared to compete also due to the mitigating factor that she was 15.
“In a fair competition the same rules have to apply to everybody,” Bach said.
The pressure weighing on the Russian skaters was all too evident when silver medallist Alexandra Trusova broke down in tears before the podium ceremony.
“Everyone has a gold medal, everyone, but not me. I hate skating. I hate it. I hate this sport,” she said. “I will never skate again. Never.”
(Writing by Julien Pretot; Additional reporting by Gleb Stolyarov in Moscow; Editing by Ossian Shine/Himani Sarkar/Ken Ferris)
