Less than two weeks after Russia turned one of the marquee events of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games into a bizarre and troubling fiasco, all …
Less than two weeks after Russia turned one of the marquee events of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games into a bizarre and troubling fiasco, all of its figure skaters were banned from the upcoming world championships, not because of the country’s state-sponsored doping, but because of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. It took the most terrible thing in life to get the right result in sports. As the international sports world continues shutting doors on athletes from Russia, the International Skating Union, figure skating’s worldwide governing body, announced that Russia’s powerful figure skating contingent would not be allowed at the world championships in Montpellier, France, later this month. That means no Kamila Valieva, the 15-year-old who would have been favored to win the women’s title presuming she has recovered after crumbling under the scrutiny of her positive drug test in Beijing. No Anna Shcherbakova, the defending world champion and surprising Olympic gold medalist who sat alone and barely celebrated that stunning evening after the women’s long program.
