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Olympic figure skating champion Kamila Valieva, after starting the test skates, admitted that she had recently undergone surgery on the retina of the eye, which is why I didn’t have time to properly prepare. Sport discusses what is happening in Valieva’s life and career, and why an imperfect skate in Moscow speaks of the champion’s great desire to remain in the sport.
What is happening with Valieva
Before the start of the team’s test skates There were a lot of intrigues in Russia: which of the dance duets would get to Megasport without breaking up along the way, how many Michael Jacksons it takes to screw in a light bulb, how many times Alina Zagitova would joke about “inevitably.” You never know what they'll come up with there? Figure skating is, as they say, not that for you.
But seriously, the main theme of the fall in any case will be Kamila Valieva and everything that surrounds her. Courts, daring blues programs, the motivation of one of the most gifted figure skaters in history — there is no topic that would not be interesting to a wide range of people. Especially in the context of the start of a new season, which, perhaps, Camila will not even be able to finish for reasons beyond her control.
Returning to what is in her power — before Camila went on the ice, it was not clear whether she was ready. Sources reported that Valieva has been training sparingly since August and is not yet ready for either ultra-c or faultless triple jumps. Of course, one can never exclude the factor of a miraculous transformation into moral-volitional ones — especially since in Eteri Tutberidze’s group there were never any problems with finding strength from nowhere. But something told me that there weren’t very many chances for a brilliant box office.
Why does Camila need erotic melodrama? Reality coincided with expectations, but only partly. The daring blues to the song I See Red from the erotic melodrama «365 Days» performed by her was not just an experiment — a real flight at the speed of light from the comfort zone into an unknown galaxy. Camila has never been so driven in her life, and her coaching team, it seems, took a very big risk for the first time in a long time and was completely right.
br>Yes, the role of a seductress does not suit her yet. Blues, no matter how much Camila herself wanted to burn out the bold subtext from her program, is adult music. Sticky like melted sugar and just as hot. Our champion still has some growing up to do with this dress, but it already suits her very well. And most importantly, she likes his cut.
In this regard, technical imperfections were not so significant, but they were still present. Probably the most telling moment about Camila’s current form is not even the absence of a triple axel, but the transfer of the triple flip-triple toe loop cascade from the bonus zone to the middle of the program. This is a kind of sign that at the end of the performance there is not enough strength for the most difficult element.
In the mixed zone after the skate, Kamila joked a lot and in general did not look upset because she was used to The goal of “showing the maximum” has not yet been achieved. And then she completely explained why she had no opportunity to train in an intensive mode.
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“I prepared very well, I wanted to enter the season with a quadruple,” she told reporters. “But on August 16, during a routine medical examination, I was told that I had a retinal tear. I had two laser coagulations, and for 2-3 weeks I skated carefully. I went out on the ice on September 6, so I reduced the load. For the same reason, the cascade is like this and everything else.»
To understand what a retinal tear is, the correspondent encountered the same diagnosis at about the same time as Kamila. And he underwent the same operation — laser coagulation. It itself is not very long, the whole process takes about 15-20 minutes for both eyes, during which time you have time to remember all the shades of green — this is exactly what the laser looks like. Bright flashes through a lens placed on the eye, and you're done.
Details of injury
And then the most interesting part. After the operation, for medical reasons, for 2-3 weeks you cannot not only exercise, but generally lift anything heavier than a handbag. If you break it, you can say goodbye to your eyes. Well, if you happen to get hit on the head in the next month or two, you may experience severe dizziness and a migraine with a feeling as if your skull is exploding from the inside.
Kamila said that she was diagnosed on August 16, and she went on the ice only 3 weeks later. This is enough time for figure skaters not only to forget triple axels, but also to completely forget how to stand on skates. Therefore, for example, during the pandemic, the key factor in holding/cancelling tournaments was the requirements of the organizing country for mandatory quarantine. If it was more than a week, the competition was canceled automatically, since under these conditions the skater would not be able to show himself in any positive way under any circumstances.
But Valieva succeeded. And that seems to say a lot about her motivation to stay in the sport. And I would really like the upcoming meeting of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne not to multiply this motivation by zero.