Russia's Shcherbakova skates to gold, Valieva unravels to finish fourth

BEIJING -

Kamila Valieva struck her final pose, then waved one hand in disgust. Her face crumpled in misery.

In one of the most-anticipated events of the Beijing Olympics, a Russian won women's singles figure skating gold -- but it wasn't Valieva, who unravelled under the weight of a doping scandal to finish fourth.

The favourite after winning the short program, the Russian phenom fell twice in an error-filled skate to "Bolero." And looking very much like a 15-year-old, she sobbed in the "kiss and cry" after her scores were announced.

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Anna Shcherbakova won gold with a virtually flawless skate that included a pair of quads, to score 255.95.

"I still haven't realized that my Olympic Games have ended," said the 17-year-old champion. "I just know that I skated clean. I am so happy that I still haven't realized the result."

Russia's Alexandra Trusova made history as the first woman to land five quads in a program, scoring 251.73. But her silver left her in tears on the celebratory podium. Japan's Kaori Sakamoto took the bronze (233.13).

Canada's Madeline Schizas was 19th.

But in the biggest Olympic skating scandal since the 2002 Salt Lake Games, Valieva will be the Russian everyone remembers.

Valieva became the first woman in Olympic history to land a quad in helping Russia win the team event earlier in the Games, but news the following day that she'd tested positive for a banned heart drug thrust that result into question. Medals were never awarded. If the result is overturned, Canada would win bronze.

Valieva was cleared to compete earlier this week by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which ruled among other things that she had protected status as a minor and would suffer "irreparable harm" if she wasn't permitted to perform.

There was an outpouring of support for Valieva on social media after her meltdown. Many wondered if she'd suffered irreparable harm by skating.

According to the English translation of Russian television, coach Eteri Tutberidze's first comments to Valieva were: "Why did you let it go? Explain it to me, why? Why did you stop fighting? You let it go after that axel. Why?"

Canadian skaters were among the most vocal on Twitter.

"I never want to see Eteri again," wrote Canada's three-time Olympic ice dancer Kaitlyn Weaver.

Meagan Duhamel, a two-time world pairs champion, wrote: "EVERY athlete deserves a coach that encourages, supports and loves them. EVERY athlete deserves a coach that respects them and wants them to grow into amazing human beings not just win medals. Athletes, if you have that, you have won the lottery. Never let it go."

One positive on the night was that there was a podium celebration. The IOC had said, if Valieva was in the top three, no medals would be awarded since there'd be an asterisk on her result. The results were "preliminary obviously pending the investigation," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said.

Trusova, meanwhile, who is also coached by Tutberidze, said in an interview she would never skate again.

"I am not happy with the result. There is no happiness," she said.

Schizas, who was rock solid in Canada's fourth-place finish in the team event, had a shaky program to Puccini's "Madame Butterfly," to finish 19th in the women's singles field of 25.

The Oakville, Ont., native, who turned 19 on Valentine's Day, fell on her triple loop, and downgraded two other jumps, scoring 175.56.

Schizas said it had been difficult to ignore the spotlight that followed the women's singles skaters this week.

"There's always drama, the first week we were here it was COVID. All sorts of drama with that. And then -- surprise! Different drama this week," she said.

"It's always a little bit hard to tune that stuff out. Every time I'd get off practice, there was (media) waiting for me. It can be hard to practise knowing you're going to get off and be asked about something that you really have no control over."

The sideshow scandal, she added, wasn't an excuse.

"I skated the way I skated today not because of anything else that happened, but probably because of mistakes that I made during that weeklong break," she said. "It was no one's fault but myself."

Another theme of these Games was that women need the big jumps to land on the medal podium.

"We're already kind of at that point. If you look at this event, a lot of people are doing triple axel, a lot of people are doing quads," Schizas said. "I'm looking forward to training the triple axel personally, I was really quite close to it in the summer. I'm looking forward to being hopefully the first Canadian to land one."

While triple axels used to draw oohs and ahs, they paled in comparison to the quads on Thursday. Trusova pulled off a jaw-dropping five in her program to the "Cruella" soundtrack -- the same number American Nathan Chen landed to win men's gold. Had Valieva landed the three in her program, the Russians alone would have laid down 10.

Russian skating has been like a revolving door for young female skaters, with skaters rarely lasting even one four-year Olympic cycle. Schizas was asked what can be done to make skating a healthier sport for young women.

"Sport has given me so much," the Canadian said. "I attribute sport to a lot of the confidence I have, to a lot of the really great experiences I've had.

"There's always things you can do, we can get better as a society to safeguard people in sports (but) I've had such a positive experience, and I really attribute that to my coaches. They really focused on the journey. It was never about getting to the Olympics."

She pointed out that out of the group of skaters she grew up with, she was the only one who made it to Beijing.

"The vast majority of kids, you're not going to Olympics, you're doing sports to get all of those other good things out of it, to learn life skills, to learn teamwork and all of those really great things that you're going to need in life," Schizas said. "And I really credit my coaches for making this a positive experience.

"It just so happened that I ended up at Olympics."

The final figure skating event of the Games is the pairs, which begins Friday with the short program.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 17, 2022