Icy Child Abuse

 I have only seen Kamila Valieva skate twice. Both times over the last couple of weeks during the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. She was transcendent. I have been watching Olympic figure skaters for 30 or 40 years, and never before can I recall forgetting to breathe. I am no expert, but my amazement was echoed by those who are covering the event for NBC, at least the first time around. As she prepared for her second short program, the commentators were also unanimous, and vocal, in their opinion that she should not be there. They were silent as she finished. Except for one seemingly irrepressible murmur - I couldn’t identify the voice - “Well, I said she was the best I’ve ever seen.” However, as the camera zoomed in for a screen-filling close-up of Kamila’s face, I could not help thinking, “That is a troubled child.”

In applying Distilled Harmony to this sad event, a number of things become clear. First, Foster Harmony where celebrities are concerned is largely a media issue. At best we have pseudo-social relationships with celebrities. We call them by their first names, even when they have retained a second name. They often encourage these false relationships by forsaking their second name - sometimes all vestiges of their given names. We talk about them as if they were real friends. It creates, if anything, a sense of pseudo-harmony. Enable Beauty is likewise a media creation. Popular music, fashion, etc., are created and distributed via the media by celebrity spokespeople - "influencers." Marketers seek to create new versions of beauty every year. So the first two tenets of Distilled Harmony yield no significant insight when considering the Valieva affair.

The third tenet, Distill Complexity, proves more fruitful. There seems little if any debate over the central issue of the banned substances having been present in the sample attributed to Ms. Valieva in December. Unfortunately, that seems to be the single bit of evidence that remains uncontested. Everything else is up for grabs. Which brings us to the fourth tenet: Oppose Harm, which in this instance can also be read as "who is to blame, and who should punished, and how?"

Again clarity is mostly absent. There are some apparent conclusions. The sample tested positive, therefore Valieva should banned from further participation. Allowing her to continue punishes all the other skaters who are apparently competing without the aid of performance enhancing drugs. Period. However, this is where complexity enters the equation. She is 15, and the various Committees overseeing the sport actually have different rules designed to protect minors. Protect them from who, from what? It would seem to protect them from the very people who made it possible for them to participate in the first place. Their coaches, the Russian Olympic Committee. The same cadre of powerful adults who, if the 2014 games in Sochi and the drug scandal reveled there, have proved that they are willing to keep on cheating until they get caught and even after. These are the people Valieva would have to finger. They appear to be the abusers. Abused children often protect those who abuse them.

Let us think about 15 year-old girls for a minute. Having helped raise a couple of daughters, and having taught thousands just a few years older I have some real world experience here. They are fascinating creatures. They want to be liked. They often demonstrate their love of individuality by mimicking the celebrity models presented in the media. They are easily moved to tears and smiles, mere minutes apart. And these are regular, normal, teenage girls.

Now imagine you happen to have been born with a, perhaps once in a lifetime, set of skating skills. Skills that allow you to leave adults breathless. Skills that hang gold medals around your neck. Skills that cause people to say you might well be the best female figure skater in history. Skills that cause you to be given the best coaches, the best training available. And all you need to do is keep skating, keep doing what you are told. And the world will continue to love you. And you are 15.

And then, in the space of a couple of days it all comes crashing down. You are standing on the ice where a couple of days before the ice skating world was at your feet. Smiling, applauding, loving you. But now they think you are a cheat, a liar. Hating you. And all you did was do what you were told to do. And you are still just 15.

I sincerely hope the coaches and committees that paved Kamila Valieva's path to pinnacle of the ice skating world will be as attentive in the chaos that will undoubtedly continue to swirl around her in the aftermath of these disputed Olympics. Were she my daughter, I would take her someplace tranquil. Someplace quiet. I would take away her phone. I would give her hot chocolate and cookies. Give her Winnie the Pooh books to read. Because she is just 15.