So.. this happened? I'm shocked. THANK YOU!
When I wrote this essay I NEVER could have imagined the reach it would have. I hope I've played a small part in pushing more people to stand up for girls and women in figure skating.
(Part 3 is in the making, pls be patient 🙏)
So we have a 15yo who should have never been let on the ice go through the single most traumatic experience of her life in front of millions and a 17yo hystetically crying from disappointment while Eteri apparently tells her "this is your defeat". This is NOT WHAT SPORT IS ABOUT
I'm ecstatic for Kaori but this is a Mess. Nobody is happy tonight, NOBODY. Trusova is screaming and crying, Kamila is distraught, Kaori doesn't know how to react. What a horrible spectacle for the sport.
What happened to Kamila Valieva today was HORRIFYING and her not making the podium CANNOT mean that we sweep everything under the rug now and save face.
IOC and ISU need to do something about the horrible abuse and corruption in this sport.
Here to remind you that Kamila Valieva with the same jump content scored 20 POINTS OVER WAKABA HIGUCHI who has better SS, better choreography and way better jumping technique.
This sport is sick.
I think this absolute horror show that just happened before the medal ceremony tells us EVERYTHING about the state of women's figure skating. It's dominated by children with abusive coaches on the brink of a nervous breakdown. I AM HORRIFIED I HAVE NO WORDS.
A podium covering 3 continents, featuring two women in their 20s finishing their second Olympic cycle and a super talented teen slowly working her way up.
FEELS GOOD FEELS ORGANIC
Eteri Tutberidze has completely destroyed women's figure skating and the ISU has let her.
For years now, I thought the only thing that could stop her would be one of her athletes testing positive for doping.
Apparently not.
In ANY reality Kaori Sakamoto would dominate women's figure skating - except she's not doping and not from Russia so she's getting comfortably overscored by both Valieva and Shcherbakova (and their doctor)
#figureskatingisdead
It wasn't meant to be this time around, but at the end of the day I just feel blessed that he made it to his third games and attempted his dream jump at the Olympics. Always and forever a legend 💙
So Kamila Valieva was on TWO heart medications at age 15 and we think the irreparable harm for her is not competing?
What kind of message are we sending here?
Genuinely thought nothing would be worse than the outrage I experienced in 2014 over Yuna and Adelina, but this has actually managed to top it 🤡 now instead of one skater being robbed it's literally everyone being pushed aside to accomodate cheaters
#figureskatingisdead
Eteri Tutberidze on Valieva: "She finds strength in herself because she knows she is pure. She has no guilt."
Uhhhhh yeah, NOBODY thought Kamila was the guilty one, Eteri. The World is kind of looking at you and your shady doctor right now, if you hadn't noticed #позорТутберидзе
But for real if it hadn't been for Eteri's reign of terror the competition today would have been so amazing and enjoyable, so many great skaters were overshadowed by the nasty atmosphere that woman brought to the sport 🤧
Kaori, Wakaba and Young is the real top 3 of this event.
Disgusting to see the system continue to reward teams who dope their skaters and cheat their way to the top in any way possible.
#figureskatingisdead
When I hear sentences like "we have never seen a skater like her" about Kamila my first reaction is sadness bc I remember hearing it about Zhenya, Alina and Alena and I'm so upset none of them is in Beijing 😭
Today is the day figure skating officially died for me.
Congratulations for encouraging greedy adults to continue giving banned stuff to kids and for showing clean athletes they will never have a fair chance.
#KamilaValieva
#FigureSkatingIsDead
Sending Kamila out there to be photographed covering her face while Eteri and Danny G run away quietly right after practice shows how cowardly they really are. But apparently not scared enough to avoid giving TMZ to a kid. #позорТутберидзе
Also this is horrible for figure skating. This sport is already half dead and now this is what people will be talking about and remembering from the last quad.
The ISU recently awarded Eteri Tutberidze as their "best coach" - why don't we take a closer look at what they're endorsing every time they choose to make Eteri their golden standard?
A THREAD COLLECTING ALL THE PUBLIC EVIDENCE ABT ETERI'S KAROLYI-LIKE COACHING METHODS
CLEAN WAKABA HIGUCHI & YOUNG YOU WITH A 3A SAME SCORE AS ALEXANDRA TRUSOVA WHO FELL ON AN UNDERROTATED ATTEMPT AND HAS NOVICE LEVEL SKATING SKILLS BUT OUTSCORED BOTH IN COMPONENTS AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
#figureskatingisdead
Yelim getting full (e) calls on her lutz meanwhile Anna will jump ten flat edged floopz and never get reviewed as always, we love fairness
#figureskatingisdead
Seeing the other girls have messy practices after the announcement because they know their fair chance has been taken away from them is truly heartbreaking.
I guess CAS doesn't care about the irreparable harm they're being caused though!
Trying to come to term to Yuzu having a freak accident at the Olympics is so difficult, esp when I struggle to think of someone who has more respect for the ice than he does
He's been shockingly graceful about such twisted fate, I just hope the ice will be kinder tomorrow 😭💜🙏
Thank you to all skaters for the amazing work this quad 👏❤ but esp to my favs:
🇯🇵 Yuzuru
🇰🇷 Junhwan
🇺🇲 Jason
🇮🇹 Matteo
🇯🇵 Wakaba
🇷🇺 Alena
🇷🇺 Evgenia
🇯🇵 Kaori
🇯🇵 Satoko
🇰🇷 Eunsoo
🇰🇷 Young
🇨🇳 Sui/Han
🇯🇵 Miura/Kihara
🇷🇺 Panfilova/Rylov
🇷🇺 Step/Buk
🇮🇹 Guignard/Fabbri
RT ur favs!
Thank you Yuzu for an amazing 12 years. Being your fan and watching you achieve the impossible again and again has been an honor. You brought so many people a lot of joy through your passion and determination ❤️😭🙏 enjoy this new stage of your life!
I will never forget how they stepped on all these girls' dreams just so that they could let cheaters on the podium instead. THIS is what irreparable harm is.
#figureskatingisdead
As her 15yo student Kamila Valieva faces a CAS hearing today for testing positive to tmz, Eteri Tutberidze's other student 17yo Anna Shcherbakova is attempting tens of quads in practice and falling on a heavily taped ankle + equally taped neck.
INVESTIGATE ETERI #позортутберидзе
Kamila Valieva is absolutely a victim in this scenario. However now that we know she really did test positive to TMZ, they absolutely can NOT let her compete. It would be the most absurd, offensive and ridiculous decision ever. Unbelievable.
The way clean athletes were actively punished today not only by having to compete against someone who doped, but by the judges rewarding ROC athletes only and criminally underscoring everyone else
#figureskatingisdead
I'm sorry but if they get away with an actual positive doping test I am forever quitting ladies figure skating. What a slap in the face to clean athletes and to the audience. I'm meant to keep watching these girls jump quads when I know they could be on heart meds? HELL NO
The way the Russian FS community (not the fans, I'm talking about TAT, Zhulin, Gorshkov etc) all immediately rally behind Eteri after Bach's words abt her without blinking an eye really does not give me ANY hope that they're going to try and create a healthier system.
Olympic Champion Anna Shcherbakova obviously in pain as she tries to do a biellman spin. So far there hasn't been an Eteri Tutberidze student who has been spared from massive back injuries thanks to the horrible technique she teaches.
All of them teenaged girls.
I hope that the ISU takes a long, hard look at what they've supported for years. They happily looked the other way about so many horrible things, from the questionable training practices to the blatant judging corruption, and for what. This mess to destroy FS on the world stage.
I'm just going to say, if it is really Kamila remember that THIS GIRL IS 15 AND THE PEOPLE WHO SHOULD BE HELD RESPONSIBLE ARE TUTBERIDZE, RUSFED AND HER PARENTS. They jeopardized the chances of a teenager and potentially put her health at risk too. Unbelievable.
I'm sorry, but when the podium in a couple days is entirely occupied by minors coached by Tutberidze - what the fuck are we supposed to do? Clap because abusive coaching won once more? Pretend we don't know they're probably on PEDs? Celebrate quads achieved through starvation?
I hope that in spite of having to take part in this farce Wakaba, Kaori and Young have the skates of their lives and fulfill their Olympic dreams knowing that they have done their absolute best in the face of blatant corruption 🙏💙
The people who say raising the age would hold back the technical advances of the sport - are they REAL technical advances if only children trained to exhaustion and potentially taking PEDs can perform them? Or are we telling a lie to ourselves to advertise quads?
I can't express how terrified I am that they may let Kamila compete: for her, bc millions of people will see her as a cheater who shouldn't be there; for her competitors, knowing they're being robbed and disrespected; for the sport, losing its last shred of dignity.
As we witness the coomplete destruction, physical and emotional, of multiple minors, I ask once again for the age limit to be raised. This sport looks more and more like child abuse with every year.
And for the love of god INVESTIGATE ETERI.
#figureskatingisdead
#ISUneedsreform
This also just confirms to me that they need to raise the frickin age limit. Children like Kamila are WAY too easy for adults to exploit for their own gain. I can't imagine how devastating it would be for her and all she did was trust the adults around her.
The way the qrts to this tweet sound like Mean Girls' opening bit about Regina George 😂
"Yuzuru Hanyu is flawless" "I heard he sleeps with one eye open" "Once he was traumatized by a bell pepper" "Cats are his favorite animal..." "...but he's allergic to them"
Well in case we had any doubts, this competition proves to us that while removing Team Tut girls evens out the field and makes for a more unpredictable and pleasant competition, the ISU STILL NEEDS REFORM because the scoring is all over the place - just less blatantly so
Vincent's video is honestly heartbreaking: "To the older Vincent watching this, your younger self would be so proud of the athlete and person you've become now"
Man this is so tough... I hope he'll get support from family&friends
Alena about Eteri: "I think her posting on IG was bad. If you want to sort things out, you have to do it in person, eye to eye. It was wrong behavior, I think. But I cannot discuss other people".
YOU TELL HER ALENA!!
Yulia was blamed for developing an ED
Zhenya was blamed for leaving to try & keep skating
Alina was blamed for being 'lazy'
Alena was blamed for being 'lazy' &'rebellious'
Sasha was blamed for insisting to jump 5 quads
Daria was blamed for not knowing how to stop when in pain
🙃
Shocked by the ppl in my replies that keep denying anything being wrong with Anna's back as if we haven't seen this 284729 times before and everyone else in that camp hasn't retired at 18... like legit what will it take for you to open your eyes, this is getting ridiculous
"'Did you have dinner with Tutberidze?' - Oleg Vasiliev, coach of the Belarusian team smashed the judges at the European Championship. 'ISU spends a lot of money every year on the training of judges. I would like to ask - and where are the results of this training?' he added."
I've been there for Yuzu's victories in Sochi and Pyeongchang and never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined him fighting for gold in Beijing 2022. Extremely grateful to have been able to witness all of this 🙏💜💫
You guys, I walked into my school's teachers room and all my colleagues were discussing the Kamila situation. As she's the same age as our students they were all absolutely horrified. Surreal to hear skating talk at work but what a bad image for the sport
If true, what's worse is I'm pretty sure literally ALL of us suspected Eteri&co could be doing something like this to those girls and we've been raising alarm bells for literal YEARS and nobody lifted a finger because they had to market quads and invincible girls etc. Disgusting.
Extremely sad for the athletes who are just caught in the situation, but an understandable decision considering the current scenario.
Seeing a big women's competition without Russia is going to be strange but interesting.
The ISU has announced that, until further notice, no skaters representing Russia or Belarus will be allowed to compete at any ISU events due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The same also applies to officials from Russia or Belarus.
“Everyone returned exhausted, Eteri looked awful. To my question “How are you?” she replied “It feels like I’ve returned from prison.” choreographer of Tutberidze group abt Olympics
Click the link to read the full interview⛸
#figureskating
#iceskating
How can Anna and Sasha even compete now? Can Eteri still be there with them? Will people trust their results? How can they even handle this mentally? So many questions. What a horrible, HORRIBLE situation this is :(
Wakaba making the Olympics after the heartbreak of 4 years ago and doing it with a 3A is the kind of story we all want to see as fans of this sport. This is why it's so special to be able to follow skaters through multiple Olympic cycle, through heartbreak and victory 😭❤🙏
I wouldn't be so sure. This is very very serious. Russia is already on thin ice w/ the IOC and now if this is true Eteri just made things for ROC extremely hard for the next Olympic quad. There may be big repercussions and I'm sure ROC isn't pleased with her. They're not Rusfed.
What is happening to women's figure skating? In part 2, we're analysing the damaging culture permeating women's skating, from starvation diets and dangerous training practices to psychological abuse, corrupt scoring, ageism and child exploitation.
Why would Kaori, an Olympic skater, feel sorry for her direct competitor who's:
a) allowed to compete despite a positive doping test
b) ovescored to high heavens no matter what
??????
Sakamoto: Do I feel sorry for her? I don't think so. But it's really difficult to express myself. I'm focusing on the sport, on the competition, and at the moment, I'm trying not to think about things like that. What's important is that I focus on my own performance
#Beijing2022
Gonna be superficial for a second but Madison Chock is literally one of the most beautiful people I've ever seen - if one of us mortal tried that makeup look.....
Her parents should be ashamed. Her coaches should be ashamed. Ted should be ashamed for saying this is something to be proud of when they're risking this girl's health so carelessly. I am truly speechless.