Sports discusses how the talent of the 2022 Olympic champion Kamila Valieva was revealed in a new way last season and why the Beijing drama didn't break her.
Valieva is the only one of the Beijing trio who has spent the entire post-Olympic season from start to finish. From test skates through the local Grand Prix, the Russian Championship, new tournaments to ice shows. There is no need to look for reasons to reproach Alexandra Trusova and Anna Shcherbakova — their plans, whatever they may be, first of all corrected health problems.
But in Camila herself, we discovered new facets of talent. In addition to plastic and jumping talents, she obviously has unique physical powers. The possibilities of regenerating the body, and most importantly the psyche, — few can compare with Camila in this regard.The collapse of the Olympic dream breaks many strong athletes. Camila did not just lose the Olympics a little over a year ago — she went through the system, first of universal adoration, and then of condemnation. Guilty, not guilty — all these categories cease to matter when the word “doping” appears next to the athlete’s name in the headlines. Near the name of Valieva, it appeared when the cork was already boiling on the triumphant champagne on the occasion of her imminent two-time Olympic championship. The difference between expectations and reality turned out to be quite painful. In the saddest scenario, such a blow could lead to the end of a career. Even for a young 15-year-old figure skater.
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“For the first six months after the Olympics, I thought that it would be incredibly difficult to continue, not to think about everything that was written, written and said then. And you grow, your body changes, you go to training after a rest and you understand that you can’t collect a triple jump. You just go for a triple sheepskin coat, but it’s not there, ”the figure skater said in an interview with Channel One.
The removal of Russian athletes from international starts unexpectedly benefited — all at once found themselves on an equal footing. Camila did not have time to seriously understand what it is like when you are isolated alone. In addition, in Russia, she received phenomenal support. Her story transcended the genre of sports drama and became the tale of an indigo child in the midst of a frenzied crowd. About such a gifted child that one part of the adults is ready to punish him for this, and the other — to forgive him anything. The second, fortunately, turned out to be more.
And now the season. Every exit on the ice is like a butterfly under the microscope of an entomologist, where nothing will be left without attention — facial expression, costume details, the number of sips of water before the start. Camera clicks, silent tapping on the smartphone screen — journalists, bloggers, just fans record every step of the most discussed figure skater in the world. It started a long time ago, and reached a painful peak at the Olympics:
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“You go to training, and there, instead of several photographers, there is a whole arena of these clicking cameras. Whatever you did, everything was photographed, everything was laid out. You are already used to being under cameras, but right to such a state … I watched all the time and thought: «God!»
Over time, the butterfly acquired armor. Camila's difficult relationship with the world against the backdrop of a doping scandal laid the foundation for a free program, which she skated with great resonance throughout the season. It was not a declaration of her own innocence, but rather an attempt to show how she felt in that difficult situation. A call not to justification, but to empathy. There has been a lot of criticism about how correct it is in principle to speculate on such a topic./
A year later, with a cool head, we can say that for Camila, this program has really become a form of psychotherapy. So, it was not all in vain. The main thing is not to cling to the image of the victim in the future: it directly contradicts the image of the winner.
Meanwhile, Camila turned seventeen only at the end of April. Over the past year, she has become wiser — she can still laugh like a child, but in a conversation she gives out absolutely adult things. And she openly regrets that at the Olympics she did not have the qualities that she has now. This more than compensates for the decline in technical capabilities.
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“Many people think: Kamila Valieva can only roll lyrics. But how do you know? You need to develop, but you don’t need to think that you are perfect in something. This cannot be done, otherwise there will only be degradation,” Camila said in an interview. These words, albeit unconsciously, seem to be addressed to the coaching staff.
This season, Camila was given much more space for creativity. Demonstrative numbers thundered — first Wednesday, sensational on TikTok in a black dress, then a shaman with a tambourine, causing rain right on the ice. Valieva has never skated anything like this before, and the success that the new images have caused should make the director Daniil Gleikhengauz seriously think about the programs for the next season. Camila does not have to play drama on her eyebrows — her creative range is perhaps the widest in the world.
Camila looks capable of not losing physical properties while maintaining a great desire to ride and for many more years to demonstrate the limit of human capabilities. She has more than enough of that. But the most gifted figure skater of the era risks being left with zero adult titles if the results of the European Championship and the team tournament at the Olympics are canceled as a result of a doping scandal. And this is terribly unfair.
Paradoxically, it was Kamila Valieva, the most perfect product of the system of a fleeting and bright career, who became Eteri's most real prospect Tutberidze for the first adult champion and a really long career. Despite noticeable changes in form, Camila continues to jump quadruple sheepskin coats. It is still far from the Olympic content, but it was Olympic content for that, in order to seem inaccessible in normal times. In addition, there are still a few female athletes in the world capable of something more than Valieva. Its ceiling of possibilities is limited solely by external circumstances — by how soon Russian athletes will again be allowed to participate in international competitions.