During this year’s 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, there has been a lot going on in figure skating, on and off the ice. Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva has been under intense scrutiny after it was revealed that she had taken a heart medication that was banned from the Olympics because of its performance enhancing capabilities. She was able to appeal her suspension and is continuing to compete. 

Every year, it seems to appear that the Olympic athletes we see keep getting younger and younger. Last summer during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, there was a great number of participants under the age of 18 in the Games. While this is an absolutely incredible feat, showing that they are some of the best within their respective sports, it leaves a lot of questions. Because Omlypians go through such intense and rigorous training to achieve the necessary stamina and abilities to perform at their highest level, how might this affect such young competitors?

This recent scandal has brought up a number of concerns within the Olympic figure skating community of whether there should be age restrictions put in place. Valieva is only 15 years old, a minor in the eyes of most countries, making it hard to believe that she just had access to this drug or had a reason to be taking it. With this being said, she was most likely given the drug by her skating coach and didn’t understand what exactly she was taking. 

By putting an age minimum in place, these types of events could be avoided as the skaters would be able to better sense when something is wrong and advocate for themselves appropriately in that type of situation. Each country wants to take home a medal because of the prestige and honor it is to rank in the top three against the world’s best athletes. This desire can begin to cloud one’s vision as this want turns into greed and causes them to do anything it might take to win, even if it could end up sabotaging themselves, e.g. athletes who took steroids and ended up losing their medals. 

This also isn’t good for the athlete’s health as no one should be taking non-prescribed drugs of that caliber. There are so many negative side effects to taking the drug if you don’t have the illness that it’s used to treat, especially in someone who’s so young. 

This type of ultra heightened expectation where the competitor feels or is forced to take drugs also isn’t good for their mental health. A lot of girls who take part in competitive skating from such a young age end up quitting the sport due to fatigue or injury. This significantly decreases the longevity of the sport. This causes competitors to become even younger than they are at the moment and make older women in the sport look like dinosaurs. 

Overall, there does need to be an age limit put in place within the Olympics if they want athletes to be able to compete year after year.