PHUKET, Thailand — No 15-year-old determine skaters shall be allowed to compete on the 2026 Olympics following the controversy surrounding Russian nationwide champion Kamila Valieva at this yr’s Beijing Video games.
A new age restrict for determine skaters at senior worldwide occasions was handed Tuesday by the Worldwide Skating Union in a 110-16 vote that can increase the minimal age to 17 earlier than the subsequent Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
“This can be a essential choice,” ISU president Jan Dijkema stated. “I'd say a really historic choice.”
The restrict shall be phased in with 16-year-olds allowed to compete within the 2023-24 season, rising to 17 the season after, which is the final earlier than the Olympics.
The change was coming even earlier than determine skating on the Beijing Olympics was dominated by the emotional stress placed on the 15-year-old Valieva. She was the favourite to take particular person gold, after serving to the Russians win the group title, earlier than her constructive doping take a look at from December was belatedly revealed in the course of the Olympics.
The teenager was allowed to coach below intense scrutiny as a Court docket of Arbitration for Sport listening to was ready that allowed her to compete pending the total investigation in Russia. That's nonetheless ongoing.
Nonetheless, her primary routine was crammed with errors and he or she dropped to fourth place. She was then criticized rink-side by her coach, Eteri Tutberidze.
The ISU drafted an age-limit proposal saying “burnout, disordered consuming, and long-term penalties of damage” had been a threat to younger teenage skaters who're pushed to carry out extra quadruple jumps.
The governing physique stated it had “an obligation of care to guard the bodily and psychological well being and security of all athletes together with elite adolescent athlete(s).”
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