What's the Story?

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Or have they? While the men did not have a Russian representative in this Olympic games, the women showed up powerfully, placing first and fifth. Of course, there are some pretty significant reasons why Russian representation was questioned at these Olympics, which were even hosted in Russia! The famed Russian Doping Scandal began in 2014, and implicated a number of Russian figure skaters. Not surprisingly, these Olympic Games were the last with Russian representatives and a Russian flag. Because of the Doping Scandal, the next two Olympic games would see Russian athletes either competing for other Eastern European countries, or for the Olympic Athletes of Russia, the OAR.

The gold medalist herself, Adelina Sotnikova, was accused of participating in the State-Sponsored Doping program, but was cleared in 2017. The International Olympic Committee and WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) were completing their investigations of Russian athletes from 2014, and had already taken 33 medals from Russian athletes whom they had found guilty of doping. Sotnikova was able to keep her own medal, but it would be her last major figure skating win. She stopped skating competitively in 2016, and retired in 2020, at the age of 24, citing intense back pain.

Yulia Lipnitskaya, similarly, retired at just 19 years old. Lipnitskaya had been battling anorexia for years, even while she was competing at the highest level, which was the primary reason for her retirement. Lipnitskaya's coach at the time, Eteri Tutberidze, has a long history of mistreating her students, which will become even more evident at the 2022 Olympic Games.

These games also brought back hints of judging scandals reminiscent of the 2002 judging scandal in the pairs skating competition. In 2002, the scandal centered on a French judge who was apparently coerced to vote for the Russian skaters regardless of how they performed. In 2014, the scandal focused on Adelina Sotnikova of Russia and Yuna Kim of Korea, the reigning gold medalist. Sotnikova beat Kim by over 5 points, which immediately caused fans and experts everywhere to doubt the judging. Yes, Sotnikova skated well, but did she skate well enough to edge out Kim by that much of a margin? Some critics of Sotnikova claimed that Kim "had been denied the gold that was rightfully hers by questionable judging and the looming presence of the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin" (McCurry). Is that what it's come to, then? The nation's president shows up at the event, and all dignity and integrity of athletics gets tossed out the window? To some, that is exactly what happened. And it's just the icing on the cake that Sotnikova had just won Russia's first gold medal in women's figure skating...ever. Because the judging system, actually introduced in 2002, is anonymous, we may never know which judges chose to bump the Russian's scores over the Korean's. We may never know if these incident even deserves to be called a scandal. But it caused outrage among figure skaters globally, and it revealed to figure skating fans, once again, that this sport is a lot more than graceful arms, dizzying spins, and sparkly costumes.

Food for Thought

Is too much expected from athletes on a national level? How could countries mitigate the pressure that is so often placed on elite athletes at the Olympic games?

Both Adelina Sotnikova and Yulia Lipnitskaya have since retired from figure skating, both at incredibly young ages. They had years of potential ahead of them, but because of the intensity of their training, and the mental and physical expectations that their coach placed upon them, both of their careers were cut incredibly short.

That being said, should the minimum age for the Olympics be raised so that young Russian, or any nationality, really, women are not exploited for gold medals, just to be tossed aside as old news once those medals have been acquired?