Eteri Tutberidze, coach of Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, responds to criticism

Russian figure skating coach Eteri Tutberidze says she’s baffled by the International Olympic Committee boss’ harsh criticism of how she treated controversial skater Kamila Valieva.

IOC president Thomas Bach was scathing on how Tutberidze and the rest of the entourage reacted after Valieva, who was allowed to compete despite a positive doping test, had fallen twice and finished fourth at the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Watch Kamila Valieva’s capitulation in the Winter Olympics figure skating in the video above

Watch the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics on Channel 7 and stream it for free on 7plus >>

Bach said he was “disturbed” by the “tremendous coldness” towards Valieva after the competition, saying it did not give him “much confidence in the closest entourage of Kamila”.

Valieva was in tears after her performance on Thursday and Tutberidze confronted her in the “kiss and cry” area.

“When I afterwards saw how she was received by her close entourage ... it was chilling to see this,” Bach said on Friday.

Some Russian officials have dismissed the criticism - and Tutberidze has also taken to social media.

“I am still baffled by the assessment of our work from the respected Mr Bach,” Tutberidze said on Instagram.

Tutberidze was commenting on a post by another Russian coach, Alexander Shulin, which was an open letter to Bach in which he expressed “surprise” by the IOC leader’s statements.

Shulin said Tutberidze had trained four gold medallists since 2014 and “she probably knows how and what she must tell her pupils after their performances.”

“I am very grateful for the words of support,” Tutberidze said on the post.

The scenes after the women’s free skate event on Thursday night, which included a tearful meltdown by silver