A new proposal to raise the minimum age for figure skating competitions from 15 to 17 in major events, including the Winter Olympics, appears to be aimed squarely at the issue. Figure skating has been dogged on the global stage by concerns about the mental and physical safety of some of its best and youngest competitors.
In Thailand next month, the International Skating Union, the sport’s regulatory body on a worldwide scale, will vote on the proposed proposal. It was at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where the Russian skater Kamila Valieva, who was then 15 years old, was at the center of a doping scandal that rocked the entire Games. The issue of instituting minimum age limits in global sports, which had been debated in many other sports, such as gymnastics, re-arose in unsettling fashion.
International Skating Union (I.S.U.)
This year, the International Skating Union (I.S.U.) council, which had already begun looking into the issue well before the Olympics, has proposed a gradual change to the rule: keeping the minimum age at 15 this year, raising it to 16 before the start of the 2023-24 season, and raising it to 17 for the following season.
With this program, the goal is to assist young athletes in coping with the physical and psychological demands of their sports. It follows the controversy involving the then-15-year-old Russian Kamila Valieva during the Beijing Winter Olympics in February, which drew international attention.
After failing a drugs test in December 2021, Valieva was only found out after she assisted Russia in winning the team gold medal at the 2021 World Championships in China. An appeals court removed her temporary suspension after a series of challenges, allowing her to compete in the women’s solo event in the Rio Olympics in 2016.
In that tournament, she made multiple mistakes and was knocked out of medal contention, placing fourth and breaking down on the ice amid upsetting circumstances.
“It is conceivable that allowing underage athletes to compete may subject them to loads and risks that are thought to be inappropriate for their age,” the ISU’s medical commission said, “Not only physically, but in terms of the psychological and social development of the child. Junior athletes need to cope with multiple stressors on their pathways towards elite sport.”
“Ultimately, performance enhancements are normally the central concern for ambitious athletes, as athletes themselves and by others are continually evaluating their accomplishments,” They added.