Teen Russian figure skater with controversial coach makes Winter Olympics debut
By Mark Staniforth, Press Association Olympics Correspondent, Milan
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’s singles competition at the Assago Arena.
Clad in a sparkling red jacket and skating to a Michael Jackson medley that including ‘Earth Song’ and ‘They Don’t Care About Us’, 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’s concluding free skate.
The Beijing Games marks Petrosian’s second senior competition outside her home country. A three-time national champion who skates under the sobriquet ‘Miss Mystery’, she won the Skate to Milano event in China last year.
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.
But the 18-year-old’s appearance at the Games is not without contention. She was invited to compete only after being judged not to have supported her country’s war on Ukraine, nor to have any links with Russia’s military or security services.
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.
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’s dramatic demise.
At an extraordinary press conference, Bach said he was “disturbed” by Valieva’s error-strewn performance, and criticised the “tremendous coldness” of her entourage, clearly referring to Tutberidze, who had seemingly ticked off the tearful teenager as she stepped off the ice.
Yet, despite concerns shown by World Anti-Doping Agency president Witold Banka, who said he was “not comfortable”, 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’s pairs competition.
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’s audacious if slightly under-stated performance.
Petrosian is seeking to extend a Russian hold on the women’s singles figure skating title that stretches back to Adelina Sotnikova, who controversially pipped South Korea’s defending champion Yuna Kim to victory in Sochi in 2014.
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.
Barring a twist of ‘Quad God’ 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’s skaters, have become a trademark.
“I am very happy with my skate,” Petrosian said afterwards. “This was the most important skate of my life.”
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.
