Kamila Valieva horror show proves the price of Olympic gold is too high

What price an Olympic gold medal these days? We know about the blood, sweat and tears, but the costs paid by the 15-year-old figure skater Kamila Valieva in pursuit of the glittering prize rose exorbitantly over the past week in Beijing. The already unstable Olympic currency of values, integrity and humanity devalued further.

There was almost universal horror watching Valieva’s coach, Eleni Tutberidze, in action. Her harsh questions as Valieva sought to escape the rink after her unravelling performance caused consternation. Even the fence-sitting International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach, spoke out. But after the initial repudiation and disgust, her approach struck a troublesome chord. Perhaps a flashback to a teacher or parent, a sports coach or another instructor.

It has rung bells in my own head and with others I used to train and compete with. Sam Parfitt, chief executive of The True Athlete Project, said what is perhaps most chilling about Tutberidze’s behaviour is that it is “so reminiscent of what you’ll see every weekend, at all levels of sport, from coaches and parents of children who love and then inevitably hate sport”.

The Beijing ice rink drama showed us new obscene depths of where a “win at all costs” mentality can end up. The IOC’s 2020 Agenda of Credibility, Sustainability and Youth that set out to “safeguard the Olympic values and strengthen the role of sport in society” seems irrelevant.

As for the founding philosophy of Olympism that wanted to make the world a better place through sport, Baron de Coubertin’s principles lie shredded, carved up in the thousands of cuts in the Ice Cube’s Olympic rink.

While Valieva’s Cinderella was left in tatters at the end of her skate in a plot with more