The doping case involving Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva has led to many more questions than answers.
Some skaters think it’s time to ask another: Should a 15-year-old be in the Olympics at all?
“You want these athletes to have an opportunity to have this be a profession, not a one-year run at it,” Mariah Bell, at 25 the oldest U.S. national champion in nearly a century, said after skating Tuesday.
“If we had an age (minimum) limit, I think it would promote that idea of longevity and somebody being 25 wouldn’t be shocking at an Olympics.”
Valieva was allowed to skate Tuesday in the short program partly because her age gives her extra rights as a “protected person” in a doping case. It comes as some skating officials push to raise the minimum age for her event from 15 to 17 in time for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics. Bell suggested a minimum of 18.