By Patricia Lee Sharpe
Maybe Valieva got tired of being a pawn of the Russian system and did the best she could do, but in a surprising way.
Maybe she threw the race.
First the Russians put her through the ice skating mill, including a very clever and complex doping regimen. Then they forced her to skate under the pall of the usual Olympic dithering and indecision. Finally, confident that the Olympic authorities would, eventually and as usual, bow to Russia, Valieva's handlers expected their star skater to dazzle in the finals.
But Valieva had other ideas. She didn’t crack. She took responsibility and she did the admirable thing, faking a sloppiness that began with the clumsy quad. And so the gold went to a skater who was tainted only by association with a rotton system.
Yes, Russians received both gold and silver medals, but the 2022 prizes will never have the sheen of medals won under more savory conditions.
And speaking of nastiness, isn't it possible that the coach who scolded Valieva as she left the ice wasn’t berating her for failing the system, but for rebelling against it and doing the ethical thing? This explains the peculir optics, the lack of warm words and consoling hugs. Both Valieva and her handlers knew what had really happened. And so, once the torture of waiting for the score was over, Valieva ran off, in tears and essentially alone.
This being the case, I wish her well, although her prospects in Putin's Russia look less than promising.
And my sympathies to all the fine skaters forced to perfrom in a farce.