Kamila Valieva's Olympic dream falls apart as Anna Shcherbakova wins gold [View all]

The haunting strains of Ravel’s Bolero rang out across Capital Indoor Stadium, but for once Kamila Valieva was unable to weave her spell.

The 15-year-old Russian is widely recognised as the greatest figure skater in history but, with Olympic glory on the line, the trials and tumult of the past week caught up with her over the longest four minutes and 20 seconds of her life.

The initial signs were not encouraging as she under-rotated on her first element, a quad salchow. But having then landed a triple axel, Valieva’s routine suddenly fell apart with two heavy falls – first on a quad toe loop and triple toe loop combination, and then again on another quad toe loop combination.

The crowd clapped and tried to rally her. And rally she did. But the damage had been done. And despite leading after Tuesday’s short programme, Valieva’s performance in Thursday’s free programme dropped her down to fourth with an overall score of 224.09.

As Valieva stepped off the ice, visibly distressed, her coach Eteri Tutberidze barked at her: “Why did you let it go? Explain to me, why? Why did you stop fighting? You let it go after that axel. Why?”

For minutes afterwards Valieva sat in the kiss and cry booth, unable to comprehend what had happened. She was not the only one.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/feb/17/kamila-valieva-anna-shcherbakova-winter-olympics-beijing-figure-skating
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I told you that coach was a fcuking monster! The kid is 15...let her cry!