Biography of Kamila Valieva: the path from a Kazan star to an Olympic champion

Kamila Valieva is only 16 years old, but the whole world is already applauding her. We are talking about one of the brightest figure skaters Eteri Tutberidze.

Kamila Valieva was born on April 26, 2006 in Kazan. Parents, worried that their daughter would grow up as a sickly child, sent her to several sections at once: dance, ballet, rhythmic gymnastics and figure skating. And when it came time to make a choice, Camila, without hesitation, turned to figure skating.

Soon Valieva’s parents decided that their daughter’s talent needed to be developed and decided to move to Moscow, closer to the star coaches. In 2018, after breaking her leg, Camila finds herself at a crossroads: she doesn’t understand if she should continue figure skating.

And just in time the girl was able to see the group in Eteri Tutberidze. “Eteri Georgievna once admitted that she liked skaters close to despair. I won’t say that I was completely disappointed in the sport at that time, but I wanted to challenge myself. Watching in Khrustalny was the very challenge Valiyeva once admitted.

Then the figure skater brilliantly passed the selection, and from that moment her career accelerated. So, at her first adult national championship, Camila immediately won silver, losing to another student Tutberidze Anna Shcherbakova, but beating her idol Alexander Trusov.

In 2022, Valieva went to the Beijing Olympics as our team’s main favorite and justified her title by winning a gold medal in the team tournament, making a great contribution to the common cause (she won two programs).

“For the first time I watched the Olympic Games in 2014, when Yulia Lipnitskaya performed. In 2018, I was very worried about Alina Zagitova and Zhenya Medvedeva. This is my childhood dream! From the “When I was three years old, I probably told my mother that I wanted to be an Olympic champion. And now the dream has come true! I will continue to work to make another dream of mine come true,” admitted the student Tutberidze immediately after the victory.

For many, Valiev is associated with records: at 15, the skater has already set several. Camila could boast of her early achievements even at the junior level, but at the adult level she has no equal at all, as she fights again and again.

So, at a tournament in Finland in 2021, Valieva set two world records for points at once – for one free program (174.31) and for the sum of two programs (249.24). In October of the same year, during the Grand Prix stage in Canada, she already scored 180.89 points in the free program, and 265.08 in the sum of two programs. And after some time in Sochi, she set three world records at once: in the short (87.42), free (185.29) and total for two programs (272.71).

But that’s not all. At the Russian Championships, Kamila scored 90.38 points in the short program and 193.10 points in the free program, and in the total of two programs – 283.48. Alas, these records were not counted, because the result was shown at the national championship. Valieva pulled herself together and at the European Championships she already scored 90.45 points for the short program.

Valieva became the second figure skater in history (after Alexandra Trusova) to perform a quadruple sheepskin coat in competitions sponsored by the ISU (International Skating Union). Camila is the first adult figure skater to successfully perform a triple Axel in one program, as well as three quadruple jumps.

In Beijing, Valieva, despite an unfortunate fall, not only brought gold to her team, but also became the first woman in the history of the Olympic Games to perform a four-lap jump. What is it if not a miracle?

Like any professional athlete, the skater has almost no free time. Rare minutes off the ice that Camila spends with her Spitz named Leva, who was introduced to her by fans.

The athlete also likes to dance and draw, but she practically does not have time for this. Although during quarantine, Camila became interested in rhinestone paintings.

Valieva leads instagram (The social network is recognized as extremist and banned in the territory of the Russian Federation), where she shows her sports daily. Almost 400,000 people have subscribed to the athlete’s blog, and this figure is constantly growing.

The Beijing Olympics ended in a truly dramatic way for Kamila Valieva. Unable to withstand the pressure due to the doping scandal, the skater failed the free program.

It was the worst rental in Valieva’s career, but for the whole country she remains the strongest athlete in Russia. All those who followed the events understood it: without this pressure, she would have had the gold medal of the Olympic Games. And so – an unfortunate fourth place. But we are sure: Camila has everything in front of her.

Read also: Broken! The tragic defeat of our athletes at the Beijing Olympics

Photo: Getty Images, Instagram (The social network is recognized as extremist and banned in the territory of the Russian Federation)