‘Tremendous coldness’: IOC president slams Kamila Valieva’s entourage over skater’s treatment

The way 15-year-old Russian skater Kamila Valieva was treated by her coach after her two falls in her figure skating routine on Thursday evening was “chilling” and does not inspire any confidence in her entourage, the International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach has said.

In an unusually strong intervention, Bach admitted that he was shocked to see the controversial Russian Olympic Committee coach Eteri Tutberidze berate Valieva as she came off the ice, barking at her “why did you stop fighting?” even though she had been under enormous mental stress ever since her positive drugs test was revealed last week.

“I must say I was very disturbed yesterday when I watched the competition on television,” said Bach. “First in her performance, how high the pressure must have been on her. I know from my athlete time a little bit about pressure. But this pressure is beyond my imagination, in particular for a girl of 15 years old.“To see her struggling on the ice, seeing how she tries to compose herself again and finish her programme, you could see in every movement in the body language, you could feel this was an immense mental stress.“But this was not all,” Bach added. “When afterwards I saw how she was received by her closest entourage, with what appeared to be a tremendous coldness, it was chilling to see this.“Rather than giving her comfort, rather than trying to help her, you could feel this chilling atmosphere, this distance. And if you were interpreting the body language, it got even worse because there were even some dismissive gestures I saw on TV.”The gold medal was won by world champion Anna Shcherbakova, who narrowly pipped her Russian compatriot Alexandra Trusova despite a more conservative free skate routine.