Alyssa Liu’s Olympic gold medal has broken more than a decade of Russian dominance in women’s figure skating. Mary O’Leary examines the system behind that dominance, and why Liu’s victory could signal a turning point for the sport.
Alyssa Liu’s Olympic gold medal in single women’s figure skating, marks the return of an American gold medal as well as an end to Russia’s monopoly on the competition for over a decade. But why has this hurdle taken so long to overcome and what does this disruption mean for the future of figure skating?
To understand Russia’s hold over the sport of women’s figure skating, a hold which has previously led them to three consecutive Olympic gold medals until now, one must first look to the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Not only were these games splashed with controversy over the overly gracious judging of Russian skaters, but they also introduced to the world a Russian coach who would control the figure skating world for the next decade - Eteri Tutberidze.
To understand Russia’s hold over women’s figure skating, one must first look to the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Though her skater, Yulia Lipnitskaya, did not medal in the single women’s competition in Sochi, her entrance into the Olympics marked the start of Tutberidze’s recognition by Russia and the ISU (International Skating Union). In the following 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, it would be both her skaters Alina Zagitova and Evgenia Medvedeva to take both gold and silver. The 2022 Beijing Olympics would show her complete monopoly of Russia’s women's skating, with each of the three new Russian female skaters coming from her tutelage and two of them again taking gold and silver.
But how did this one woman control a sport for over a decade? The answer - quads.
Unlike in men’s figure skating, quad jumps in which a person does four full rotations in the air were completely absent from women’s skating until Tutberidze. As such, her renown went worldwide, with her becoming one of the most famous coaches in modern figure skating.
However, this new addition to the sport created an issue both in regard to the judging of the sport and the health of female athletes. Throughout all the Olympics in which Tutberidze has coached, including this most recent one, none of her skaters have returned to the Olympic games. This is not by accident, with most if not all of them retiring or leaving Tutberizde by the time they turn eighteen, so much so that the term ‘Eteri Expiration Date’ has been used to describe this process.
This ‘Expiration Date’ is not due to the heightened competition of Russian figure skating circles, but from harmful, long-lasting damage done to them by Eteri’s quad-teaching methods. Unlike male skaters, who use strength to achieve this feat, Tutberizde’s methods rely on skinny, prepubescent female body masses instead. As such, her skaters, by much of their own admission, must retain a malnourished, childlike body to maintain this skill.
Her method of jumps also heavily relies on ‘pre-rotation’, in which a skater twists their body in preparation for a jump whilst still on the ice. Not only is this bad technique, but it can do a huge amount of damage to an already malnourished spine and legs. It only takes a couple of google searches to find out that many of her most prominent skaters retired for these exact reasons and most before the age of twenty.
Surprisingly, with these harmful effects, quads are still wildly overscored within women’s skating, even if done so with horrible technique. As such, coaches like Tutberizde have been allowed to continue for many years, with Russia only facing consequences in the 2022 Olympics after her skater, Kamila Valieva, tested positive for doping. Even then, though Valieva received a ban from the Olympics, Tutberizde was still allowed to coach.
But how does all this relate to Alyssa Liu and her triumph this Olympics?
Unlike the past three Russian gold medalists, Alyssa Liu is the first gold medalist to be competing in her second Olympics. Not only that but her win comes off of a two-year break in which she allowed her body to grow past its prepubescent body mass. On top of that, she hasn’t destroyed her body doing incorrect quads that might harm her for life.
Unlike the past three Russian gold medallists, Alyssa Liu is the first to compete in her second Olympics.
When looking back on the 2022 Olympic women's figure skating, the media storm surrounded Tutberizde’s skaters- Kamila Valieva, Alexandra Trusova, and Anna Shcherbakova did nothing but blame these underage girls for the abuse they’d suffered. Whether it be doping or the destruction of their bodies in a competition, they knew they’d only be able to compete in once, their health and safety were never regarded.
On top of that, Liu has spoken many times about the control she has both over her health and creative process within her programs. She has also spoken out against the injustices within the American government, making her opposite to that of past Russian skaters whose Olympic medals have been used to promote Russian propaganda. It is her assertion of her own health and personhood which directly combats that of Tutberizde’s and traditional figure skating standards.
Watching Alyssa Liu win the Olympics, as well as Kaori Sakamoto earning silver in her third Olympic run, has shown the world of figure skating that it should be exactly what it claims to be- a sport for women with bodies of women and not for the malnourished bodies of underage girls.