Olympic gold medalist and retired figure skater Sarah Hughes lent her thoughts to the drama surrounding ROC star Kamila Valieva and her teammates, describing the 15-year-old and the new crop at the top as unfortunate models for young girls.
"When I was 8, I watched Oksana Baiul/Nancy Kerrigan/Chen Lu & when I was 12, it was Tara/Michelle/Chen Lu. What we saw today is what the 8 yr olds & 12 yr olds who love the sport are seeing. So that’s another thing we can add into this. :(," she tweeted during Thursday's free skate finals.
"For what we just watched and has come to light the past week, 'the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat,' tagline doesn’t even resonate," the now practicing attorney from Long Island said as she continued live-tweeting her reaction to the event.
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The 36-year-old Hughes, who won gold in Salt Lake City in 2002 and the bronze medal in the World Championships a year before that, appeared to focus on Valieva's reaction to her uncharacteristic performance. There were tears.
And not just from her. Silver medalist Alexandra Trusova didn't want to see any of it. Johnny Weir translated her response to it as, "I can't see this, I won't see this."
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Hughes, who has described the doping scandal as "unfortunate" but not elaborated much more in recent TV interviews, pushed for a comprehensive change to women's figure skating once the 2022 Winter Olympics are over.
"We can't stop talking about it" come Sunday when the Games end," she tweeted. "This is a time for reevaluating how things are done."
Hughes was one of the youngest U.S. skaters to earn gold, which she did at age 16. Tara Lipinski was younger (15) when she accomplished the same feat.
Kamila Valieva falls twice in free skate, finishes 4th
Kamila Valieva fell twice twice during her free skate and was unable to cleanly land any of her three quad attempts, yielding a score of 141.93 points for a total of 224.09 points, resulting in a fourth-place finish.
