{"id":303485,"date":"2026-02-18T02:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T02:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/303485\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T02:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T02:06:09","slug":"teen-russian-figure-skater-with-controversial-coach-makes-winter-olympics-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/303485\/","title":{"rendered":"Teen Russian figure skater with controversial coach makes Winter Olympics debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Milan and Cortina Olympics has had its first glimpse of Adeliia Petrosian, the leading Russian figure skater with the controversial coach who has been allowed to compete in the women\u2019s singles competition at the Assago Arena.<\/p>\n

Clad in a sparkling red jacket and skating to a Michael Jackson medley that including \u2018Earth Song\u2019 and \u2018They Don\u2019t Care About Us\u2019, Petrosian delivered a career best score of 72.89 for her short program that is likely to leave her on the fringe of medal contention in Thursday\u2019s concluding free skate.<\/p>\n

The Beijing Games marks Petrosian\u2019s second senior competition outside her home country. A three-time national champion who skates under the sobriquet \u2018Miss Mystery\u2019, she won the Skate to Milano event in China last year.<\/p>\n

\"MilanAdeliia Petrosian skated to a Michael Jackson medley in Milan (Natacha Pisarenko\/AP)<\/p>\n

In a rare interview with international media in 2024, Petrosian spoke of growing up dreaming of hairdressing and selling vegetables, and her love for her Yorkshire terrier, Almochka.<\/p>\n

But the 18-year-old\u2019s appearance at the Games is not without contention. She was invited to compete only after being judged not to have supported her country\u2019s war on Ukraine, nor to have any links with Russia\u2019s military or security services.<\/p>\n

More pertinently, Petrosian trains at Sambo 70 in Moscow, the club that nurtured Kamila Valieva, who dramatically fell to earth during the 2022 Olympics under the weight of an initial positive drugs test, and was subsequently disqualified.<\/p>\n

The club is run by Eteri Tutberidze, the coach who was excoriated by the then International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach in Beijing for her part in Valieva\u2019s dramatic demise.<\/p>\n

\"MilanAdeliia Petrosian attained a career best score after the ladies\u2019 short program (Natacha Pisarenko\/AP)<\/p>\n

At an extraordinary press conference, Bach said he was \u201cdisturbed\u201d by Valieva\u2019s error-strewn performance, and criticised the \u201ctremendous coldness\u201d of her entourage, clearly referring to Tutberidze, who had seemingly ticked off the tearful teenager as she stepped off the ice.<\/p>\n

Yet, despite concerns shown by World Anti-Doping Agency president Witold Banka, who said he was \u201cnot comfortable\u201d, Tutberidze has been able to subvert the Russian ban after being accredited as a member of the Georgian delegation, coaching Luca Berulava and Anastasiia Metelkina to silver in Monday\u2019s pairs competition.<\/p>\n

Tutberidze has been seen with Petrosian in the Milan practice hall, but was not allowed rink-side on Tuesday due to her accreditation with a separate delegation. But her influence was evident in Petrosian\u2019s audacious if slightly under-stated performance.<\/p>\n

Petrosian is seeking to extend a Russian hold on the women\u2019s singles figure skating title that stretches back to Adelina Sotnikova, who controversially pipped South Korea\u2019s defending champion Yuna Kim to victory in Sochi in 2014.<\/p>\n

\"ISUEteri Tutberidze is a controversial figure at the 2026 Winter Olympics (Andrew Milligan\/PA)<\/p>\n

Alina Zagitova stomped her way to victory in Pyeongchang in 2018 and, amid the tumult of Beijing, Anna Shcherbakova took gold ahead of another Tutberidze protege, Alexandra Trusova, who fled the ice insisting she would never skate again, only to appear at the post-Games gala three days later dressed as Wonder Woman.<\/p>\n

Barring a twist of \u2018Quad God\u2019 proportions, Petrosian is unlikely to be in a position to extend that illustrious lineage. She resisted the quad-jumps which, in common with most of Tutberidze\u2019s skaters, have become a trademark.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very happy with my skate,\u201d Petrosian said afterwards. \u201cThis was the most important skate of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the culmination of her performance drew cheers from the packed crowd in Milan, it was easy to forget the political ramifications of her appearance. For a fleeting moment, as she threw her head back and accepted the acclaim, she was simply another young girl skating her heart out to a pop song.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Milan and Cortina Olympics has had its first glimpse of Adeliia Petrosian, the leading Russian figure skater…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-303485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}