Opinion: Why the quad revolution in women’s figure skating is a tragedy

By Mili Mitra
Editor, Global Opinions
February 10, 2022|Updated February 11, 2022 at 9:20 a.m. EST

This week, 15-year-old Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva became the first woman to complete a quad jump — with four rotations — in an Olympics. Not so long ago, quads in the senior women’s competition felt like a pipe dream. Now, multiple other female skaters will be attempting quads in next week’s individual event, including Valieva’s 17-year-old compatriots Alexandra Trusova and Anna Shcherbakova.

Valieva’s feat was soon shadowed by news that she had tested positive for a banned substance in December and was suspended from competition for a brief period, until a Russian anti-doping committee lifted the suspension. But the quad revolution raises a broader concern about elite women’s skating: Although the sport can provide moments of athletic triumph, the system that produces them is a tragedy.

For much of the past decade, the discipline has been dominated by teenagers. Russia in particular has a seemingly never-ending pipeline of young phenoms able to jump higher and with more stamina, or do tricks and combinations that earn extra points. Part of this has to do with the country’s strong system for identifying and recruiting these talents.

Another, darker part of this story involves training: Many young Russian skaters are taught to jump by “twisting their upper bodies before they’ve taken off from the ice,” otherwise known as “pre-rotating.” This strains their backs at a time when their bodies are still developing and relies on the skaters staying small and often unhealthily thin. Their diets and weight are then heavily controlled to delay changes in their bodies for as long as possible. ... This is not a sustainable strategy — and it’s not meant to be. Elite training programs — including the one run by Eteri Tutberidze, who coaches all three Russian skaters — develop athletes to enter and win the Olympics and world championships. If they retire within a year or two, there’s another prodigy ready to take their place.

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Opinion by Mili Mitra
Mili Mitra is an editor for The Post's Global Opinions section. Previously, she was a digital producer with Opinions and an intern with the editorial board. Twitter https://twitter.com/MitraMili