Figure skating-ISU statement follows controversy over Russian coach at Milano Olympics

MILAN, Feb 16 : The International Skating Union (ISU) issued a pre-emptive statement on Monday after controversial Russian figure skating coach Eteri Tutberidze was present at practice alongside neutral athlete Adeliia Petrosian.

Tutberidze's influence as a coach has been under the spotlight since the 2022 Beijing Olympics, when her former charge, Russian Kamila Valieva, was at the heart of a doping scandal.

Tutberidze was not found guilty by WADA of any offence in relation to Valieva's positive test and never faced any sanction.

Long regarded as Russia's dominant women's figure skating coach, Tutberidze received Olympic accreditation through Georgia because she coaches that country's European men's champion Nika Egadze. 

With her presence at Petrosian's training session on Monday raising questions, the ISU stressed that athlete eligibility and supervision at the Olympics fell under the jurisdiction of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

"Based on IOC guidelines applying to Russian and Belarusian passport holders, the International Skating Union (ISU) was one of the first winter sports federations to allow a limited number of independent neutral athletes (AINs) to compete under strict conditions," the statement said. 

"An ISU-constituted AIN Review Committee formed a robust series of protocols for the screening of proposed athletes and their support personnel… The Olympic Winter Games and related rules are the responsibility of the IOC."

Petrosian, 18, is competing as a neutral athlete due to Russia's exclusion from international sport over its invasion of Ukraine. 

The teenager has skated just one senior competition outside her home country in the past two years — the Olympic qualifying event in Beijing that earned her