BEIJING (NewsNation Now) — Kamila Valieva stumbled repeatedly and had a disastrous second skate at the Winter Olympics, finishing out of the medals.
This was a shocking development for the Russian wunderkind whose Olympic dream became a nightmare after doping allegations surfaced. Olympic Committee officials said they were “disturbed” by the ROC team’s reaction to Valieva’s fall from grace, calling them out for turning a cold shoulder to her distress.
NewsNation’s Andrew Marden, reporting from Beijing, said there were a riot of opinions and emotions concerning Valieva even being allowed to compete after a banned substance was found during a blood test.
IOC President Thomas Bach didn’t pull any punches in a press conference after the event, saying, “I must say I was very disturbed … in every movement, you could feel that she was under immense mental stress.” He also specifically called out her entourage for being “cold” to her when she skated off the ice.
In other ice news, after taking the gold medal four years ago, one misplayed rock kept the U.S. curling team off the medal stand entirely. Canadian skip Brad Gushue took advantage of a misplay by his American counterpart, reigning Olympic champion John Shuster, and gave his team an insurmountable 8-5 lead.
Gushue won gold at the games in Turin in 2006, when Shuster won bronze.
As the games come to a close this weekend, the U.S. team has selected its flag bearer. Elana Meyers Taylor, who was picked as the flag bearer to open the games but was sidelined by a positive COVID-19 test, will get the honor to close things out.
She won silver in the new monobob event, meaning she’s medaled in four consecutive Olympics.
The Closing Ceremony will air at 7 a.m. Eastern time in the U.S., and will be re-aired during prime time.