In the surprise of the night, Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto was third, with 79.84 points. Valieva’s Russian teammate Anna Shcherbakova scored 80.20 points to finish in second place. But in her flowing purple princess dress, she slipped back into character and continued her whirring jumps and spins, as if the past week’s chaos had never happened.Īnna Shcherbakova of Russia. She stumbled on her opening jump, a triple axel, which she had trouble with during a practice earlier in the day. With long, beautiful lines and the sublime grace and agility of a prima ballerina, Valieva - for a movingly sad few minutes - floated through most of the routine she performed to “In Memoriam” in a hushed arena. Those who know her best say she is so good and performs so effortlessly that she appears born for events like this. On Tuesday, with some fans in the arena clearly supporting her, Valieva was finally back at the main rink doing what she had come to do. She was cleared to skate only a day before the start of the women’s figure skating short program. That girl, the 15-year-old Kamila Valieva of Russia, had made it through a week of accusations and insinuations and legal arguments after it was discovered that she had tested positive for a banned drug several weeks before the Beijing Olympics.
Lee/The New York TimesīEIJING - The applause started slowly, just single claps, before a smattering rained down on the teenage skater alone, so alone, at center ice.
Kamila Valieva of Russia took to the ice after days of controversy.
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