Falls and tongue out: Valieva's grotesque performances cause trouble

Great excitement about figure skating superstar Kamila Valieva. After the 16-year-old finished her freestyle at the second stage of the Russian Grand Prix in Kazan, she wants to put on a little show for the fans. Many fans then attacked her and accused her of bad style.

Figure skating Olympic champion Kamila Valieva also won the second event of the Russian Grand Prix. Despite falling during a quadruple toe loop, the teenager received a score of 158.42 for her freestyle. With a total of 241.72 points, she confidently secured victory in her home country of Kazan. However, what Valieva showed after her freestyle caused a great deal of excitement.

The 16-year-old wanted to delight the fans with an unplanned show. Twice she took a run-up and attempted the quadruple toeloop that she had previously messed up in the freestyle. But both times the superstar fell. After her second fall, Valieva smiled at the audience with her tongue out. Quite a few then sharply criticized the Russian.

In Russia’s social media there was talk of a “circus show” and “pure, dishonest PR”. Some criticized Valieva’s disrespectful behavior towards her competitors. “This is not a show, this is a competition. That’s how you should behave,” said a comment on Telegram, which received a lot of encouragement.

Valieva herself defended her performance after the Grand Prix, saying she had planned something similar at the first stop in Moscow. But then she was forbidden to do so. “And today, after my freestyle, I looked at the coaches and decided to do it. In the end, unfortunately, it didn’t work out. I don’t know if it’s forbidden, but I was the last one on the ice, so I did tried it”

If it were up to her, she would have tried a third extra jump, “but the coaches said enough is enough. Although I probably would have been successful the third time,” said the 16-year-old, who did not differ from her competitors had to listen to bad words: “If someone had spoken to me about it, I would of course not have done it. But nobody except the coaches has spoken to me so far.”