The 15-year-old skater at the center of an ongoing doping dispute leads the competition, but as a result, the entire event—and the IOC's system—is in pieces.
BEIJING — Representing a country that technically isn’t here, after a performance she shouldn’t have been allowed to give, on her way to a medal she can’t receive, 15-year-old Russian star Kamila Valieva walked past reporters at Capital Indoor Stadium, avoiding questions she couldn't answer. She had skated beautifully, but that isn’t the point. Welcome to the most elegant sham in Olympics history. Only the victims are real.
Valieva’s short program was not perfect, as she nearly fell on her opening jump, a triple axel.