We have old closed Mudcat threads about figure skaters
in the Winter Olympics twenty years ago,
with much muttering about doping scandals, coaching, and judging.

Well, doesn't that sound familiar, after what happened
in the Winter Olympics this year.

As everybody must know by now, the story being a sensation:
The fiercely competitive Russian figure-skating coach,
Eteri Tutberidze, had big plans for three Russian athletes
to sweep the medals platform for women's figure skating:
Kamila Valieva, Alexandra Trusova, and Anna Shcherbakova.
(I think that's how you spell them.)
Probably in that order, because
Valieva was doing extraordinary work,
Trusova pursued an ambition for a certain jump and
to do it an unprecedented number of times in one routine,
and Shcherbakova was getting variable results.

And as the entire civilized/plugged-in world now knows,
Valieva didn't even make the medals in finishing fourth;
Shcherbakova took the gold for her artistry and poise;
Trusova's athletics got her the silver medal,
but the roughness of her skating lost out to Shcherbakova;
and the Japanese figure skater won the bronze medal.

It seems, reviewing and searching for news and commentaries,
that while there was enough fuss with
Valieva getting a positive banned-drug test result
AND being a minor competing as a professional
-- decisions are still being argued over on that point --
while coach Tutberidze's other two protegées
were both competing for Olympic figure skating medals,

for the Russian public and fans, the drama started well before
the Olympics in Beijing.
As witness this English-language version of
a Russian report.
This is BEFORE the Beijing olympics, and already
the report has a fan's fanatical intensity.
It even mentions Yulia Lipnitskaya.

And she was the sensation at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014,
also a protegée of coach Tutberidze,
and ended up in treatment for anorexia nervosa,
retiring from the profession.

Russian figure skating team (January 18, 2022)