Ep. 238: The Figure Skating Fiasco, Explained

Burn It All Down

Sports

4.5 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 22 February 2022

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

**CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains discussions of abuse, eating disorders and death by suicide.** In this episode Brenda Elsey, Lindsay Gibbs and Jessica Luther break down the figure skating doping controversy at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. They start the show, however, with Olympic moments that were fuzzy and cute. Then, they decipher what happened in the mess of the women's figure skating conclusion that started when Russian teenager Kamila Valieva tested positive for a banned substance on February 7. They discuss everything from the troubling, yet celebrated, coach Eteri Tutberidze, to what the heck trimetazidine is and what the hell the ROC is doing with it, to the alphabet soup (WADA, RUSADA, IOC, CAS ) that is "governing" the debacle. They also talk about the harm that this fiasco has caused Valieva, as well as gold medalist Anna Shcherbakova, silver medalist Alexandra Trusova and bronze medalist Kaori Sakamoto, as well as the damaging impacts that the culture of figure skating has on it's athletes, especially teenagers. Following this discussion, you'll hear a preview of Shireen's interview with Billy Bridges, a Paralympic gold medalist and sledge hockey legend. Then, the team burns the worst of the sports this week on The Burn Pile. Next, they lift up those making sports better, including Torchbearer of the Week Sarah Nurse, Canadian women's hockey player and gold medalist who set an Olympic record of 18 points in the Beijing Games. She's also the only Black female hockey player to compete in the Olympics. They wrap up the show with what's good in their lives and what they are watching in sports this week. This episode was produced by Tressa Versteeg. Shelby Weldon is our social media and website specialist. Burn It All Down is part of the Blue Wire podcast network. For show notes, transcripts, and more info about BIAD, check out our website: www.burnitalldownpod.com To help support the Burn It All Down podcast, please consider becoming a patron: www.patreon.com/burnitalldown For BIAD merchandise: https://www.bonfire.com/store/burn-it-all-down/ Find us on Twitter: twitter.com/BurnItDownPod; Facebook: www.facebook.com/BurnItAllDownPod/; and Instagram: www.instagram.com/burnitalldownpod/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to this week of, and I'm going to spend you out, and I'm joined by you
0:18.8	my four favorite co-host, Jessica Luther and Lindsay Gibbs, as we delve into
0:22.6	what became, sadly, one of the top stories of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the controversy
0:28.6	surrounding 15-year-old Russian skating phenom, Camila Valleva, and talk about what it tells
0:35.2	us in terms of fairness and morality. We'll burn the BS in sports
0:39.7	that needs to be burned this week and we'll celebrate the people trying to make it better.
0:44.4	Before we begin, we'd like to make a note about the content of this episode, which will have
0:50.4	discussions regarding eating disorders, physical, verbal, and sexual abuse, and
0:55.2	death by suicide.
0:57.1	Before we get into the heavy stuff, I want to ask both of you what your kind of cuddliest,
1:03.6	cutest, fuzziest Olympic moment was.
1:06.3	Let's start with you, Jessica.
1:08.6	This is hard.
1:09.6	I will say there was a lot of great stuff that happened,
1:11.7	as always. But the thing that makes me smile the hardest is when I think back on Mick Baumgartner,
1:17.0	watching Lindsay Jacob Ellis come down on her run for the mixed team snowboard cross. It was for the
1:22.4	medals. And Nick is 40. He is probably done with the Olympics at this point. This was really his last chance. He had had a teary interview a couple days earlier where he was coming to terms with that. And we got to not only watch Lindsay be amazing and win the gold medal, but then we got to watch Nick watch her win the gold medal for them. And I just love, she's 36, he's 40. So a lot of people
1:47.4	were saying it was gold for the olds, and I just adored everything about that.
1:50.7	Aw, as an old's, I have, I feel. Thank you for the representation. And mine's also in
1:58.7	olds, too. German speed skater Claudia Pextine became the oldest woman to compete at the Winter
2:05.5	Olympics at 49, I believe.
2:08.8	And after her skate, I just loved she belly flopped on the ice and just kind of spun around
	...

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