A star on the ice.

An asterisk to number one.

Quadruple Salchow.

triple axel.

Quadruple toe loop and a triple on the back.

And another triple loop.

All confessed.

The asterisk flies towards victory.

That was the plan.

But the star is a 15-year-old girl.

It couldn't stand the pressure.

Kamila Valiyeva, the world's best figure skater, has fallen.

And at the end of her freestyle in Beijing, her eyes widened with a look that says she is on the brink.

On an abyss where others have placed them.

Christopher Becker

sports editor.

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Kamila Valiewa finished fourth in Beijing.

On Thursday evening she had to put her hands on the ice with the triple Axel and fell behind with the quadruple toe loop, falling during the subsequent triple Salchow.

Her coach Eteri Tutberidze, perhaps together with the team doctor Filipp Schwetskyi, who was once banned for doping, would have to explain more than anyone else that her student Valiyeva competed in the Olympic Games under these circumstances.

Under the suspicion of having doped in December, or better: under the suspicion of having been doped.

"Explain that to me!"

But Eteri Tutberidze reproached Kamila Valiyeva.

"Why did you give everything away like that?

Why did you stop fighting?

Explain that to me!

After the Axel you gave it out of your hands”, can be heard on the television soundtrack.

Eteri Tutberidze is nevertheless the trainer of the Olympic champion.

Yet again.

Anna Shcherbakova, the world champion, became an Olympic champion.

Alexandra Trusova, also a Tutberidze student, won silver;

Second, with the highest rated freestyle of the evening.

But Trusova felt betrayed.

Fourth after the short program, she was the first of the Russians to hit the ice.

She had tried five quadruple jumps, had jumped largely clean, is now the first woman to have a quadruple flip and a quadruple lutz in an Olympic competition.

Shcherbakova jumped two quadruple jumps.

"I hate this sport.

Never again," Alexandra Trusowa said afterwards in recordings that the broadcaster Eurosport had shot on the edge of the ice: "Everyone has gold, I don't." Tears washed the mascara on her cheeks.

Asked about the outbreak at the press conference that followed, in Russian, Trusova thought for a long time before answering.

And then explained the outbreak with long years of failure.

Eteri Tutberidze, her coach, the most controversial in the business, has gold and silver again.

Like 2018 in Pyeongchang.

Sakamoto Kaori won bronze in Beijing.

That surprises her very much, said the Japanese.

Kamila Valeryevna Valiewa has nothing in her hand.

On October 10, 2021, she had increased the world record to 249.24 points.

Less than three weeks later, she became the first figure skater to score more than 250 points.

265.08 then at Skate Canada.

In November at the Rostelecom Cup, she was rated with 272.71 points.

At the Russian Championships in Saint Petersburg even with 283.48 points.

The doping sample was taken at the Russian Championships on December 25, 2021.

The positive result led to the provisional result of the women's Olympic ice skating competition.

That an asterisk will appear next to Kamila Valiyeva's name, according to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

If she had finished third, the asterisk would have had another consequence: no award ceremony.