Russian Figure Skater tests positive for drugs - delays ceremony for team medals

[Frau Muller]

I … Trusova's technique seems sturdy. Of course, we don't know if she's doped, but nothing's surfaced about her, so for now I'll use her as an example for women being able to do quads. Still one woman.

Can she still do a quad? I haven’t been following closely but her physique has markedly changed. The general grooming and look is horrendous. Untidy.

 

[Lilia A]

Can she still do a quad? I haven’t been following closely but her physique has changed.

Well, she's apparently injured right now so not at this very moment. She withdrew from the free skate at the test skates and was holding her lower back at the end of the short. But she can still land them, at least the Lutz. She's shown one in practice, a 4Lz+2A sequence, and I believe she landed one on a show back in the summer. Yes, her physique has changed, which is normal. The chat comments on the Channel 1 livestream were brutal

 

[Frau Muller]

Well, she's apparently injured right now so not at this very moment. She withdrew from the free skate at the test skates and was holding her lower back at the end of the short. But she can still land them, at least the Lutz. She's shown one in practice, a 4Lz+2A sequence, and I believe she landed one on a show back in the summer. Yes, her physique has changed, which is normal. The chat comments on the Channel 1 livestream were brutal

Thanks. I honestly think the ultra-Cs are gone…and the smiling and joking with the coaches tells me that she (& they) doesn’t care…lackadaisical attitude. Good luck to the Olympic silver medalist in her next chapter, whether it’s coaching or whatever. Just get a becoming, professional look…stop the wacko weirdo thing. Yuk.

 

[soogar]

Thanks. I honestly think the ultra-Cs are gone…and the smiling and joking with the coaches tells me that she (& they) doesn’t care…lackadaisical attitude. Good luck to the Olympic silver medalist in her next chapter, whether it’s coaching or whatever. Just get a becoming, professional look…stop the wacko weirdo thing. Yuk.

First we complain how that team pushes and abuses its skaters. Now the team is letting its athletes rest and grow up and there are complaints that they don't care. There's no reason to push them to do quads if they are only doing local competitions and with the new age restriction, no reason to burn out their juniors as well. Who knows what's in Tut's head. Maybe she hates Putin so much that she isn't going to bother to produce gold medalists anymore. It's clear her heart is with her daughter.

 

[Sylvia]

Christine Brennan tweeted today: https://twitter.com/cbrennansports/status/1575233737876553728
"I thought I had seen and heard it all in figure skating — until this week when I found out my voice and my words are included in Russian Kamila Valieva’s new long program for the 2022-23 season. My @usatodaysports column":

Kamila Valieva skating scandal takes surprising twist I didn't see coming | Opinion

This week the internet produced an unprecedented surprise: Valieva’s new long program for the 2022-23 season, which included me.

www.usatoday.com

Excerpts:

At a recent Russian preview event for the upcoming skating season, Valieva, dressed somberly in black, stands still on the ice as a mix of foreboding music and a few words in Russian play throughout the arena, followed by these words in English, “It was unexpected, it was shocking…,” which were mine.
At that point, Valieva starts to skate, finishing four minutes later by pulling a black hood over her head, an artistic flourish that recalls how she rushed past journalists while hiding her face in the Olympic mixed zone at the height of the doping scandal more than seven months ago.

... Her positive drug test forced the cancellation of the team medal ceremony.
Two weeks ago, the Russian Anti-Doping Agency announced the completion of its excruciatingly delayed investigation into Valieva’s positive drug test, with hearings scheduled to begin soon. The medals still have not been awarded in the team event.

Valieva's FS at the test skate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JicUWheqqFE

 

[TAHbKA]

Vaitsekhovskaya's take of Valieva's programme is that it's her swan song and a way to say goodbye. If Valieva is facing a 4 years ban it might be the case...

 

[shah]

". . . is skating to Christine Brennan" could be a new rep level . Btw, Valieva's story is really sad, on so many levels...

 

[MacMadame]

I wonder if Team Kamila anticipated the response from Brennan to this program. She used it as an opportunity to dredge up the entire incident and cast shade at the proceedings.

This was entirely predictable IMO but I have this feeling that Eteri, et al, thought they were somehow sticking it to her by including her voice. Instead, there are articles about how Valieva tested positive, how the teams didn't get their medals because of it, and how RUSADA dragged out the investigation, etc. None of this makes them look good IMO.

 

[Wyliefan]

Would any of that penetrate their hermetically sealed little bubble?

 

[Vagabond]

Laëtitia Hubert had a much better druggy program.

 

[VGThuy]

Laëtitia Hubert had a much better druggy program.

I can’t think of a better program representing the decade of the 1990s than that. I’m not saying the 90s were full of heroin but the seriousness and with that 90s-style club music wearing black with her hair like that and the need to do a program about a chronic social ill and to portray someone suffering from it without voiceovers was just perfection.

 

[Rukia]

I want someone who doesn't have their team medal yet to skate to a program including voiceovers from all of them about what it's like to not have a medal you earned yet

 

[Karen-W]

I want someone who doesn't have their team medal yet to skate to a program including voiceovers from all of them about what it's like to not have a medal you earned yet

Someone needs to send this idea to Alexa stat! If there is anyone actively skating who would be ballsy enough to do this, it's Alexa Knierim, and Brandon Frazier would just be along for that ride. Or, maybe Chock & Bates. I want to see the FD to this theme. What could IAM do with this sort of a story?

 

[Vagabond]

Valieva's program ought to have to started with "How could you give up like that?" from Eteri Tutberidze and ended with "I hate my sport!" from Alexandra Trusova, with cuts from "Mother's Little Helper" by the Rolling Stones and "We Are All on Drugs" by Weezer.

The Knierim or Chock program could be set to Eddie Money's "Two Tickets to Paradise," with about three minutes of that an extended dubbing of the lyrics "Waited so long/We've waited so long."

 

[Japanfan]

I want someone who doesn't have their team medal yet to skate to a program including voiceovers from all of them about what it's like to not have a medal you earned yet

Or we could have skaters skating to negative commentary about themselves. For example, Elvis Stojko could skate to a 'rise up and fight' sort of program while commentators talk about his lack of artistry.

Really, the possibilities are endless.

 

[Rukia]

Or we could have skaters skating to negative commentary about themselves. For example, Elvis Stojko could skate to a 'rise up and fight' sort of program while commentators talk about his lack of artistry.

Really, the possibilities are endless.

Nathan needs to do a show program to someone just reading mean tweets about him to a beat and then at the end he can pull out a picture of the twitter logo and rip it in half dramatically as a single tear rolls down his face

 

[VGThuy]

Michelle Kwan can do a routine that starts with Tara’s scream of victory in the KnC in Nagano, then the two minute mark could be marked by Sarah Hughes and Robin Wagner’s screams of victory from the locker room in SLC and end with her announcing her withdrawal from the Torino Olympics with her reading quotes from her autobiography Heart of a Champion throughout the program.

 

[Wyliefan]

Nathan needs to do a show program to someone just reading mean tweets about him to a beat and then at the end he can pull out a picture of the twitter logo and rip it in half dramatically as a single tear rolls down his face

No, no tears -- he can just pull his gold medal out of its sock, hold it up, wink, and skate away.

 

[Frau Muller]

Or we could have skaters skating to negative commentary about themselves. For example, Elvis Stojko could skate to a 'rise up and fight' sort of program while commentators talk about his lack of artistry.

Really, the possibilities are endless.

It could be positive comments. For ex, Ilia Malinin could skate a program with Dick Button voiceovers; e.g., after every quad, we hear the voice of Dick exclaiming “First rate!” over the music.

 

[Aussie Willy]

It could be positive comments. For ex, Ilia Malinin could skate a program with Dick Button voiceovers; e.g., after every quad, we hear the voice of Dick exclaiming “First rate!” over the music.

With a Good for You Lucinda Ruh thrown in occasionally.

 

[overedge]

I would love to see Brennan lawyer up and sue the Russian fed for copyright infringement

 

[Karen-W]

I would love to see Brennan lawyer up and sue the Russian fed for copyright infringement

Would it be Brennan or CNN that owns the copyright?

 

[Debbie S]

Would it be Brennan or CNN that owns the copyright?

It would be the network.

 

[overedge]

And now I'd like to see a pair do a "Valieva and grandpa" program, with grandpa having heart palpitations, taking a drink, and then kissing Valieva and her suddenly having even more amazing skating skills

 

[millyskate]

Or we could have skaters skating to negative commentary about themselves. For example, Elvis Stojko could skate to a 'rise up and fight' sort of program while commentators talk about his lack of artistry.

Really, the possibilities are endless.

I like this idea

 

[airgelaal]

I would love to see Brennan lawyer up and sue the Russian fed for copyright infringement

Sue russains?

 

[Rukia]

No, no tears -- he can just pull his gold medal out of its sock, hold it up, wink, and skate away.

For the record my original iteration of this joke post ended with Nathan putting a Pooh mask on a la Ms Valieva's hood but then I decided I do not need Interpol called on me so I went with the safer joke to ensure the safety of my squeaky clean international criminal record

 

[On My Own]

For the record my original iteration of this joke post ended with Nathan putting a Pooh mask on a la Ms Valieva's hood but then I decided I do not need Interpol called on me so I went with the safer joke to ensure the safety of my squeaky clean international criminal record

What if they call the Interpol now?

 

[Rukia]

What if they call the Interpol now?

I didn't say I thought this completely through rip me

 

[MacMadame]

It would be the network.

And it would most likely be covered under fair use.