Kamila Valieva

[Darya_kkks]

Kamila had eye surgeries on Aug 18 and in the end of August. She started her trainings only on Sep 6 after 3 weeks of medical leave. And anyway showed the great level of skating. Thank you very much, Kamila. You always will be the greatest for me.

 

[NaVi]

Randomly clicked on the explore tab on instagram and came across this video that had 489,999 likes and I gave it a like to bring it to 490,000. It has 10 million total views.

 

[Mathematician]

 

[Oglafsdottir]

Fancam of new Kamila's ex "Piyala"

 

[DK74]

Nice show skate, as always, but compared to "Evening on the Farm", where Kamila is IMHO great, only good Thanks TV1 for streaming/broadcasting the full show "Evening on the Farm" and thanks to all the fans for all the "closeup" videos of Kamila from this show. Especially the "wedding scene" at the end is really cute. Kamila is so sweet when she is missing her head wear and the fancams with Kamila talking to the audience in this scene are great. I like also the different emotions and all of them are pretty well played.
This is how I want to see this beautiful girl, not in tears (thank you Maxim Leonidowitsch for "protecting" her).
But Kamilas biggest "problem" is "Wednesday", which is fantastic and the benchmark for Kamila. Maybe not for Kamila only

 

[DK74]

In today's Averbukh show Kamila left me speechless. She was fantastic as the whole show. Bravo Ilia Izyaslavich. Bravo Kamila. Bravo all the other skater. Bravo all the singer. And bravo Alexei Konstantinowitsch. His emotions at the end made me feel sad.
It was a dignified show.


At least Kamilas appearances are available:





Edit: Replaced fancam videos by TV version

 

[LolaSkatesInJapan]

PERFECTION

 

[Skating91]

At least she will skate in shows for many years.

 

[Skating91]

Kamila by the time she can compete again will have been out of competition for 24 months. Akatieva by the time she competes again presumably in October will have been out of competition for 19 months. In addition, Akatieva will have spent much of that time only doing light exercises and no jumps, whereas Kamila can still train and maintain form assuming she is healthy (will have to pay for her own coach, trainer, but she makes a lot of money from the shows and promotions).

 

[Azikin]

KAMILA IS A SKATING GODDESS BORN IN FLESH

 

[Alex Fedorov]

At least she will skate in shows for many years.

This is prohibited, as is any training on the ice. In any case, the show also requires training.

 

[NaVi]

I wish I would have said these things earlier but I was never able to find a good place with all these rules around to say these things. Mods, please don't delete. This is ultimately a retrospective and then advice post. I am and will always be a huge fan and I've written this for fellow fans or maybe someone actually important. I frankly don't want to deal with the cynical responses of non-fans.

When I look her body language at the Olympics, Kamila looked innocent... her coach... not so much but there's a sliver of chance that was out of confusion. I also happen to think that Kamila was intentionally railroaded and humiliated to be made an example of. I don't believe the timing of the test results was accidental. The lab knew 1) When sample was taken 2) Age 3) Sex 4) Knew it came from Russia and probably where in Russia it came from. They could easily tell it was her sample. I found it weird how much information was leaked from the hearings around the Olympics which just screams due process violation. I think the CAS panel was intentionally stacked against her. I scratch my head at the unequal treatment by WADA of Kamila Valieva and another case where at two separate competitions the athlete had multiple and more consequential drugs in their system.

Regardless of what her coaches did or did not do before the Olympics, the way this situation was handled at the Olympics and afterwards has been truly moronic. Here's some things that come to mind but I could go on.

1. Kamila really didn't need to skate in the individual event at the Olympics and pushing to do so may have hurt her future defense. Even after getting permission to skate in the individual event, a lot of goodwill could have been created by bowing out and making a good statement.
2. If you didn't know that Kamila had a 100% chance of winning her case... why on earth would you have her doing a FS like the one she did in the season after the Olympics? I don't believe for one second that FS was her idea. That FS was more about using Kamila as a shield than actually doing anything in her favor.
3. Why was her coach and "staff member" talking to the press at all? Absolutely nothing they ever said was helpful for Kamila.
4. Why wasn't her Instagram bio scrubbed of her accomplishments knowing that they could potentially be wiped out. It's a very small thing, but it points to not caring about guarding someone's future psychological wellbeing.
5. I don't believe Kamila absolutely had to do this at all, but a lower overall media profile may have helped.

Kamila really needed to have both PR and legal representation that was separate from her coaches(and ideally the federation). It just seems like so much effort was put into protecting their image inside Russia than help Kamila's case in Switzerland. And throughout this situation it seems that there has been little understanding of the difference between PR and advertising or understanding how westerners think.

I understand not leaving her coaches as the alternatives aren't great, but it would have been best for everyone if she had. The only positive with regards to this long ban is that I think she has to leave her coaches. This will give her room to grow as an individual.

What about the future?

If Kamila wants to keep going then she ought to switch countries. Her trying to make the team in Russia and probably failing will be too depressing. No one will want to see that and even the potential of that happening will be a turn off. The schmaltzy sympathy clapping when a past favorite falters gives me shivers.

Many won't want to deal with her but I think she would field a few offers to switch if she was under new coaches despite this situation. There are coaches out there both establish and up and coming that just want public attention and Kamila would give them that. It would be hilarious if she went to go live in Dubai and competed for the United Arab Emirates.

But the problem with continuing in any form is finding somewhere to train. It's manageable if she stays in Russia but would likely be too difficult if she moved anywhere.

The best path forward is to do shows. I'm pretty sure any restrictions with regards to doing shows can be managed. A rink will be found for her to train. If she can't do shows that are publicly financed then private finance will be found. Everything in Russia can be arranged.

Kamila still has a huge instagram following which can be monetized. She can partly go the fitness or fashion influencer route but she has to be very careful and not do it in a tacky manner. But part of me wants to see Kamila stay off social media and grow outside the spotlight.

I just hope she steps out while still having something that grounds her life, becomes her own person, and doesn't act as a shield in any capacity. No matter who Kamila thinks is to blame for this situation(and it could be herself), she shouldn't stand(and shouldn't have stood) next to those taking most the heat.

 

[Azikin]

I don't believe for one second that FS was her idea. That FS was more about using Kamila as a shield than actually doing anything in her favor.

Really? I think it was showing precisely how she feels about the whole situation.

If Kamila wants to keep going then she ought to switch countries.

I really don't see her as switching countries material.

 

[Skating91]

This is prohibited, as is any training on the ice. In any case, the show also requires training.

She can buy ice time at a public rink with her own money, and let's say hire an independent personal trainer with her own money, then hire a retired figure skating coach no longer affiliated with other skaters or the federation with her own money.

I would say that for much of this season she has been left to her own devices in training in preparation for if it's the worst result, and they would have had a plan in place for her.

Kamila obviously wouldn't be able to work on something like a 4T without a jumping coach around her, but certainly she will be able to main

 

[Mathematician]

This entire sport is finished. Rest in peace.

 

[Mathematician]

The entire discipline of athletics has been fulfilled and completed. Every athlete who ever competed since the dawn of time, every event or development related to athletics at all was serving its role leading up to Jan 29th 2024. Anyone who wants to leave athletics from their life can do so peacefully knowing theres nothing more to see.

 

[Artemisa]

First what they did to her isn't fair. I'm not debating if she is guilty or deserve the punishment .. but everthything in this process isn't right since the doping result that only came positive after the team event in olympics (let's face it every russian ladie would be first) or making a 15 years old wait two years. But I have one question. Is she going to participate in competitions in russia ?.. because let's face it if russia is banned of the europeans, worlds, grand prix, olympics ... i wouldn't expect that russia would obey unless they have something to win about sacrifing Kamila

 

[Azikin]

This entire sport is finished. Rest in peace.

It's certainly only going down since covid started...

 

[Azikin]

"Justice for Kamila Valieva" petition: https://chng.it/QWT2NBVkCL

 

[LolaSkatesInJapan]

"Justice for Kamila Valieva" petition: https://chng.it/QWT2NBVkCL

I signed it. I hope it gets many, many signatures worldwide