Boris KhodorovskyAll materials Of all the fateful decisions of the ISU congress now taking place in Phuket, the verdict on raising the transition age from juniors to seniors was the most predictable. Attempts to push through this decision were made at the previous congress, but then the FFKKR, due to its authority, easily repulsed the attack. The issue was not even brought up for discussion. After the scandal with Kamila Valieva in Beijing, it became clear that reform was inevitable. This is at a time when Tara Lipinski and Sarah Hughes won at the Olympics, talk about increasing the age of transition and the negative impact of stress on fragile girls' bodies and souls was not taken into account. In recent years, when all the podiums at major international tournaments were occupied by young Russians , demands to make «female figure skating female» sounded more and more often. The «Valiyeva case» gave the supporters of these reforms an additional trump card that could not be beaten. After all, the 15-year-old figure skater belonged to the category of «protected persons» to whom the legal norms of the IOC and ISU could not be applied. Even her name could not be given after receiving information about the presence of prohibited drugs in the doping test. ISU functionaries received an additional trump card after Valieva's performance in a free program in an individual tournament and her “warm” meeting in the zone of tears and kisses from coach Eteri Tutberidze. “There were a lot of questions from the media,” ISU CEO Fredi Schmid said at the congress meeting. “Everyone was wondering why we allow young skaters to compete under such severe emotional pressure. It was said that this should not be allowed. The public and journalists are watching look after us very carefully.»
