WHAT'S NEXT?
Amongst the Russian drama and ongoing ban of Russian athletes from competition, there is hope beyond the scandal and heartbreak.
Kamila's case prompted the ISU to change the minimum age to 17, encouraging skaters to build their skills and retain them much later in their careers, when their bodies are more developed, while also protecting them from the kind of abuse that Kamila suffered at the hands of her coaches.
Yulia speaking out about her anorexia shed light not only on the culture of eating disorders in skating, but also the abusive methods of her former coaches.
This graph shows Elizaveta Tuktamysheva's senior career (11 seasons) compared to other Russian athletes, who under Eteri, only last a few seasons. Yulia is listed right under Elizaveta.
Despite the amount of young, quad-jumping, and fast-retiring Russian skaters dominating the international circuit, other Russian skaters like Elizaveta Tuktamysheva (not a student of Eteri) are staying strong and competitive for more than a decade, and Kaori Sakamoto of Japan took bronze at her second Olympics in 2022 amid the scandal. Sakamoto and Tuktamysheva are two athletes that demonstrate that figure skaters can be more than just "disposable" teenagers with fleeting careers.
Kaori Sakamoto took bronze at her second Olympics in 2022, at the age of 21, at the end of her 5th senior season
Even though these young Russian athletes under Eteri's monopoly are the most prominent victims of an abusive system, the problems aren't domestic. American figure skater Gracie Gold has talked about her experiences with depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. The "quad revolution" has gone international, with athletes across the world attempting these jumps which could potentially cause long-term injury on an already demanding sport.
Figure skating is a beautiful, elegant sport. But the treatment of its top athletes is anything but.
Eteri's young students deserve better than the brutal training they are subjected to. Not only do they suffer from verbal abuse, strict and unsustainable diets, and dangerous training techniques, but this pressure is placed on them at such a young age for a short, disposable career ending in injury and heartbreak.
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Eteri and her Russian athletes are the best in the sport, but her methods would not be able to proliferate if not for the most prominent institutions in figure skating celebrating these athletes' success, without scrutinizing the inhumane sacrifices they had to make to get there.
IT SEEMS AS IF THE SCANDALS ARE THREATENING HER REIGN, BUT COACHES LIKE ETERI WILL CONTINUE TO THRIVE UNLESS GREATER CHANGE IS FOUND WITHIN THE CULTURE AND INSTITUTIONS OF THE SPORT.
