How Kamila Valieva Stumbled and Nonetheless Received the Girls’s Brief Program

Going through intense scrutiny, Kamila Valieva, the 15-year-old Russian skating star, stumbled out of her opening triple axel however nonetheless gained the ladies’s Olympic brief program on Tuesday.

She is being permitted to compete within the Beijing Video games regardless of testing positive for a banned drug. An arbitration panel dominated that she might face “irreparable hurt” by being suspended, provided that her doping case has not but been resolved.

Valieva, who holds her arms over her head whereas leaping to extend the issue of her routine, rescued 5.26 out of a base worth of 8 factors on the triple axel.

She additionally landed a triple flip and obtained bonus factors for a triple lutz-triple toe mixture soar carried out within the second half of her 2-minute-40-second brief program. Valieva obtained the best part, or creative, scores within the competitors. Her complete rating of 82.16, whereas practically two factors increased than her nearest rival, was eight points lower than within the group competitors brief program.

Valieva’s coaching associate, Anna Shcherbakova, 17, skated cleanly with out trying a triple axel and completed second. Kaori Sakamoto, 21, of Japan additionally tried a double axel as an alternative of a triple and took third place. The third Russian skater within the occasion, 17-year-old Alexandra Trusova, fell on her tried triple axel however nonetheless managed to carry on to fourth.

The triple axel is essentially the most troublesome soar permitted within the brief program. The soar is difficult as a result of it’s the just one by which skaters take off in a ahead place. It requires three and a half revolutions to allow them to land in a backward place.

Quad jumps are usually not allowed for girls till the lengthy program, which can happen Thursday. Valieva and Trusova every plan to aim a number of quads.