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.
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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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Remember one of the big storylines of the 2018 Olympics: the competition for women’s gold between two Russians, 18-year-old world champion Evgenia Medvedeva and 15-year-old Alina Zagitova? Zagitova won and went on to win the world championships in 2019. Later that year, at just 17, she said she was aiming to lose more weight to attempt quads. She took a hiatus from competition shortly after. Medvedeva, meanwhile, struggled to adapt her technique and retired last year because of chronic back injuries.
Or take the 2014 Olympics, when 15-year-old Yulia Lipnitskaya dazzled the world in the team competition, leading Russia to gold. In 2017, she retired and opened up about her struggle with anorexia and how she lost her love for the sport. “I ... put my skates in a closet and I haven’t seen them since," she said. "I’m no longer drawn to the ice.”
Some of these damaging patterns are not limited to Russia. Figure skaters have always been pressured to remain small and light to manage more rotations in the air, and the sport has long seen allegations of skaters using weight loss drugs or puberty blockers. Two-time U.S. national champion Gracie Gold has spoken about how she faced anxiety, depression and an eating disorder during her career. Ashley Wagner, a three-time U.S. champion and World silver medalist, has become an advocate for body positivity. And the great Michelle Kwan has said she experienced body image “pressures” as a teenager.
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These trends affect men, too. But the short, hypercompetitive cycle experienced by women’s skaters today is unique. This is Nathan Chen’s second Olympics and two-time Olympic gold medalist Yuzuru Hanyu’s third. Many of the other men’s singles skaters have competed for multiple four-year cycles; some are older than 30.
So how can skating become a healthier, more sustainable sport, especially for women? National and international federations must identify and penalize coaches and other figures who put athletes at risk — but that’s only part of the problem. More broadly, judging currently gives a lot of weight to jumps, even flawed ones, though there are many more elements involved in routines. Reforms that give more weight to artistic elements and performance, and potentially target techniques such as pre-rotations, could rebalance the sport in the long term. Quads could still be rewarded highly, but skaters would have less reason to focus excessively on jumps and could develop lasting technique.
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For viewers, it might be time for some introspection, too. We want our favorite sporting figures to constantly set new records and give us Instagrammable highlight reels. But this further incentivizes athletes — and the institutions responsible for them — to chase fleeting highs despite the risks. How many talents have been lost or squandered in the process?
In Valieva’s case, the International Olympic Committee and World Anti-Doping Agency are appealing the Russian committee decision to allow her to compete. The Court of Arbitration for Sport will decide on the case in an expedited hearing. In the meantime, women’s skaters are practicing for the individual competition scheduled for next week. When they return to the ice to perform unbelievable feats of athleticism, I’ll be cheering them on. I’ll also be praying that the next generation can develop in a system that prioritizes their full careers and well-being over a few short years of victory.
