Katarina Witt recently said this about Yulia Lipnitskaya:
I look at these young girls and think: don't you have to protect them a bit from their own development curve? Is that not actually going too far? Is this really the development for this sport now? Biggest respect really, also for the men, but five quads... Even I, as an expert, get a gasping breathing from that. I am a little afraid that these maximum difficulties will become so normal that no one will understand how tough it is. It shows an ease of which I know how many hours of hard training are behind it. It hurts me to see how many injuries this has already caused, like broken arms and legs, also with Alina, or fatigue fractures like with Evgenia Medvedeva.
Another good example is Yulia Lipnitskaya, the Russian Olympic team-champion from 2014. When I saw her skating four years ago, I thought: I look forward to her in four years. What a beautiful young woman she will be, with what charisma she will come back and show us how much more beautiful figure skating can be. She gave up because she couldn't take the pressure and had eating disorders. I do think that the International Skating Union and adult people have a responsibility and must live up to it - and perhaps curb this development a bit. It's a pity, when a 15-year-old girl becomes Olympic champion and then gives up a few years later - when I want to see her for another 15 years.
http://www.kicker.de/news/winterspo...tikel_dieser-druck---schon-mit-15-jahren.html