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“Why Did You Stop Fighting?”
Yes, I know this is my third post about Kamila Valieva, but…
But I can’t stay silent after what I saw.
If you watched it, you saw Valieva crack under pressure on the center ice, making a series of uncharacteristic mistakes culminating in a painful looking fall.
When she went out there, she looked terrified. Terrified beyond nerves and pressure.
And when she came off, her coach, Eteri Tutberidze, asked her that question.
And I shuddered.
Because what I heard was “I didn’t tell you you could get off! GET BACK ON RIGHT NOW.”
Now imagine hearing those words after you fell over five feet from a moving horse.
I don’t have to imagine.
Which means I don’t have to imagine “Why did you stop fighting?” I know how those words are when you are fifteen…or younger.
No, I wasn’t on Olympic ice, but I learned to ride in a culture where yelling at people for falling off was not just a reasonable substitute for checking whether they were okay but a typical first reaction.
It wasn’t the only abuse I received, but it mapped.