By Lori Ewing
MILAN, – The International Skating Union 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 .
“Based on IOC guidelines applying to Russian and Belarusian passport holders, the International Skating Union was one of the first winter sports federations to allow a limited number of independent neutral athletes 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 a place in Milan.
Petrosian competes in the women’s short programme on Tuesday and the free programme on Thursday, and a victory in Milan would make her the fourth consecutive Olympic women’s champion to come from Russia or the Russian system, following Adelina Sotnikova , Alina Zagitova and Anna Shcherbakova .
Shcherbakova’s victory at the Beijing Olympics, however, was overshadowed by Valieva’s positive drugs test.
Valieva, who was 15 at the time, became the first woman to complete a quadruple jump at an Olympics in the team event as Russia won gold.
A day later, however, it emerged she had tested positive for banned substance trimetazidine at the Russian national championships in December 2021, just weeks before the 2022 Olympics, triggering a global firestorm.
Valieva was handed a four-year ban beginning from December 2021 while the Russian Olympic Committee were stripped of their 2022 Olympics gold medal in the team event.
Tutberidze was widely criticised after she was seen scolding a sobbing Valieva following a poor free skate, where she fell several times.
In the wake of the scandal, the ISU raised the minimum senior competition age from 15 to 17.
Tutberidze’s presence in Milan had already raised concerns with WADA President Witold Banka saying at a February 5 press conference that he felt uncomfortable with her here.
“WADA did not accredit the coach. It is not our decision,” Banka said. “The coach is here. An investigation found no evidence that this particular person engaged in a doping process so there is no legal basis to exclude her from the Olympic Games.
“But, of course, if you ask my personal feeling, I don’t feel comfortable with her presence here at the Olympic Games,” Banka added.
Petrosian is considered a dark horse in the women’s field as she is untested internationally but technically loaded with a quadruple jump that no other skater in the field has. It could see her climb the medal podium.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
