A day after 15-year-old Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva suffered a meltdown on sport's biggest stage, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said the doping scandal and its fallout "disturbed" him.
In his opening comments at a press conference held Friday to mark the nearing end of the Beijing Olympics, Bach said the way the Russian Olympic Committee skater was received by her entourage after exiting the ice following her disastrous free routine "was chilling."
"To see her there struggling on the ice and seeing how she tries to compose herself, and then how she tries to finish her program, and you could in every movement in her body language feel that this is an immense mental stress (she is under)," Bach said.
"When I afterward saw how she was received by her closest entourage with what appeared to be tremendous coldness, it was chilling to see this. Rather than giving her comfort, rather than to try to help her, you could feel this chilling atmosphere."
Valieva's coach Eteri Tutberidze was caught on camera asking a visibly distressed Valieva, "Why did you stop fighting?" the moment she stepped off the ice, according to multiple reports.
In an uncharacteristically to-the-point address from the usually circumspect German, Bach, unprompted, felt the need to express his displeasure with the spectacle from a night earlier at the Capital Indoor Stadium.
Related coverage:
Olympics: Kaori Sakamoto wins bronze as ROC goes 1-2 with Valieva 4th
RUSADA counters WADA claim over Valieva test result delay
Olympics: Court rules Russian Kamila Valieva can skate singles in Beijing
"All of this does not give me much confidence in this closest entourage of Kamila, neither with what happened in the past nor as far as it concerns the future," he said.
Bach went on to defend the IOC's role in bringing a case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport appealing the Russian doping agency's decision to lift an interim ban on the skater after her failed doping test in December, a move made in conjunction with the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Skating Union.
"We challenged this decision. We went to court. We did not want her to participate, and we lost the court case. We have to respect the rule of law," he said, pushing back against the suggestion the appeal exacerbated Valieva's predicament.
"If we are bending the rule of law, there is no international sports anymore, so we had to accept this, but to be consistent with this, we took then the other decisions about (not holding) the medal ceremonies."
Valieva was leading the women's singles standings after Tuesday's short program but had multiple falls in her free skate and slid down to fourth, allowing the medal ceremony to go ahead with her teammates Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova on the top two steps and Japan's Kaori Sakamoto on the third.
Even that did not go without incident, however, with Trusova caught on camera in tears and speaking in harsh tones before the ceremony with coach Tutberidze. This also brought Bach's ire.
"I was pondering on this last night and whether you can be really so cold to your athlete, but when I saw and read today how then Alexandra Trusova was being treated, and when I read about her comments, I am afraid that this (negative) impression that I had last night was not the wrong one," he said.
When asked later about what can be done to address Valieva's position and stop a repeat in the future, Bach spoke about the need to consider age limits to prohibit minor athletes from competing in senior competitions, even if they are good enough to do so.
He said it is up to the respective international sporting federations to implement such restrictions but that the IOC will initiate such discussions and "at least give them some food for thought on this."
He also expressed frustration about the inherent limitations of punishment options available to the likes of the IOC and WADA for cases in which people around athletes are at least in some part responsible for doping cases.
"We are not the police, we cannot interrogate, we cannot have a formal prosecution procedure and our sanctions...are extremely limited," Bach said.
He called for better cooperation between governments and sporting bodies to ensure that any wrongdoing is punished in a meaningful way and linked that directly to Valieva's case.
"The inquiry into the entourage who is responsible to protect her, this has to follow," he said.
"I hope this will bring clarity, full clarity...so that the full truth is coming to light and the people who are responsible for this, that they will be held responsible for this in the right way."
"And when I say in the right way, I say in the strongest possible way."
