Figure Skating Thread (Olympic Spoilers/Discussion starting at post #16)

[tsarinajen]

So trying to take the “emotions” out of the equation, I can sort of see what WADA was trying to do last year with the protected person status. My understanding is this is a relatively new “status”. Usually kids aren’t doping themselves. I can see the desire to protect them or punish them less, if at all.

I can even understand the due process concerns with her not being able to present a defense before the Olympics since the test was before the Olympics and not processed promptly. My understanding with that part is blame is still being assigned.

I haven’t read anywhere with the grandfather’s meds other than a tabloid if you will from Russia. If anyone has a credible source, can you send it over? I only question because if CAS was only determining her eligibility for the Games, was an explanation presented for the how and why the meds could have been taken.

I also think it’s crappy of the IOC to deny the medal distribution. You don’t want to give Russia the medals fine, but let the other two teams have theirs — in case she’s actually not banned in this. They deserve that moment. This case isn’t going to be settled for months realistically. Are you going to hold a ceremony back in China then? And same thing with the women’s competition.

With all that said, I’m still shocked at how fair CAS was to Valieva.

When all is said and done, it’s possible that Valieva could be given a six week ban, as a protected person, and keep the Olympic title(s) and lose the Russian National and European titles. I’m really curious to see how this protected person status changes things and if it’s still a thing in a year.

And to be honest, “our feelings” don’t matter in this. All the outrage or support shouldn’t change the rules.

 

[Indy]

Apparently Jonny and Tara said nothing during her routine, except for just plainly saying the names of the jumps.

Yep they were basically silent. At the end Johnny said something like “that was the short program of Kamila Valieva, and that’s all I’ll say about that”.

 

[Passion]

Just blanket raise the age minimum to 18 for every Olympic sport and be done with it already.

 

[makam]

Yeah, it is always cute when a 13 year old skateboards in the Olympics but then you think about it and are like, nah, there isn’t a need for that. They don’t need to be pushing their skill level that hard, that young and if they really love the sport, they’ll still be doing it when they are 18 – especially as there wouldn’t be as much need to break them since there wouldn’t be any chance of going to the Olympics and they would be adults and thus maybe have more of a say in their career and training.

 

[KristyJ]

I watched the whole broadcast for the short program, but it was hard to watch for a bunch of reasons. I had some issues with the scoring from the beginning and need to take a look at the detailed breakdown to see if I can pinpoint where it went most sideways. I felt like a number of big country skaters got gifts despite large mistakes. Trusova’s PCS is the most glaring example. And then Valieva. She started crying during her program, and it hit me right in the feels because of how much her team has failed her. Oddly it made her program emotional and less robotic and probably what it should have been all along. But she should never have been skating. You know everyone around her was telling her to skate. I wonder what she would have decided in a vacuum. I think allowing her to skate may have blown the issue up even more and expose her to more and worse ridicule than if she had quietly stepped back.

Did anyone else notice that Anna Sherbakova seemed to be not friendly with her coaches after her skate? Not much in the way of kind words or even eye contact. She angled her shoulders away from them in the kiss and cry. And they were all just silent waiting for her scores. I suppose I could have been perceiving this out of bias, but I wonder what else is going on behind the scenes.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

I’ve thought for a while this may be the direction of travel.

 

[Rich]

The World Anti-Doping Agency filed a brief in the Valieva case stating that the mention on the form of L-carnitine and Hypoxen, though both legal, undercuts the argument that a banned substance, trimetazidine, might have entered the skater’s system accidentally.
Hypoxen, a drug designed to increase oxygen flow to the heart, was a substance the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency recently tried, without success, to get placed on the banned list. L-carnitine, another oxygen-boosting performance enhancer, is banned if injected above certain thresholds

 

[arabiandoublefront]

I’m wondering if Anna is finally feeling what Trusova and Kostornaia felt that caused them to leave Eteri for the 2020-2021 seaon. Anna’s been there since she was 9, so it might have been harder to get to that point.

 

[Indy]

Maybe her grandpa is those other meds too and they share lots of glasses of water…

 

[Doug1233]

Their “explanation” is falling apart.

I still cannot believe they’re still allowed on the Olympic Field of Play. They’ve literally been caught doping.

 

[onodian]

I just went and checked the golden skate forum, and it seems to me a lot of people are incredibly unhappy with the judging and tired of the sport. Which got me thinking, is that what we sound like?

ETA: Apparently they now said she has to take the hypoxen cause she has arrythmia issues? (might be something else, I’m not reliable on German-English medical translation lol). This all makes less sense than the whole “this is not the NABZ” fiasco.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

I just went and checked the golden skate forum, and it seems to me a lot of people are incredibly unhappy with the judging and tired of the sport. Which got me thinking, is that what we sound like?

No, we all come off as the ideal blend of well informed, amusing, witty and attractive. Unless one of you has pissed me off, in which case yes that’s exactly what you sound like.

 

[ucrgirl]

No. I sometimes read Goldenskate and occasionally post. Gymnaverse is rational and it is understood that you can, for example, dislike Simone’s leaps but that doesn’t necessarily make you a hater. Or that it is okay to point out an athletes flaws (flaws on skills). On Goldenskate any comment less than “Oh she is perfect/doing her best/she might win gold” is too negative. And I think this thread would have been locked days ago on Goldenskate.

ETA: the arrythmia issue is brand new (freshly manufactured excuse?).

 

[Doug1233]

So now they’re trying to explain away the other two legal substances in her body, that she takes them for “heart variations”.

So - does she have a heart condition or not?

This flies in the face of the “accidental ingestion of grandpas medication” story.

It’s all just a complete joke.

 

[onodian]

“heart variations”

 

[rlayt]

My heart varies in whether it can be considered sport if there isn’t a level playing field.

 

[Seyonne]

I’m afraid what’s going to happen is, after months of investigation, Valieva will be found guilty of doping and given a lighter suspension than normal (due to age) of all of six weeks. Since suspensions are backdated to date of test, that will put the Olympics outside the suspension and all results will stand. It will be like nothing ever happened.

 

[onodian]

Gymnaverse is rational

Just imagine that we’d be the last bastion of rationality, when we would have single-handedly killed every judge had they not taken larisa to tokyo

 

[onodian]

that will put the Olympics outside the suspension and all results will stand

What i really don’t understand is this: she was going to win REGARDLESS. Like somebody said upthread, she could have taken a shit on the ice and still get 9.75 on skating skills and 10 on musical interpretation. If there is one sport in this world were you REALLY don’t need doping is f-ing figure skating. You got them judges and their pcs, that’s actual performance enhancement going on right there!

 

[arabiandoublefront]

I’ve been part of the gym online community since 2002 and the figure skating online community since 2014. Besides ggmb and gymtruthteller, the figure skating fandom seems more insane. Beyond the controversies, there are a lot of fans who think the judges are out to get the Japanese skaters. There are a lot more conspiracy theories, too.