True Left

Valieva, who has dominated her sport during this Olympic season, took off awkwardly 25 seconds into her performance on her opening jump, her triple axel. She clumsily stepped out of it, but didn’t fall.
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But for all this drama, when Valieva’s score popped up, it was good enough to take the lead, then maintain it as the final four skaters could not reach her lyrical heights. It’s not a large lead, 82.16 points to 80.20 for her training partner Anna Shcherbakova, but she’s in first place.

That result was, well, awful. The young woman – girl, actually – who should not be in the competition is leading the competition.

This was all wrong. Valieva was cheered by the sparse crowd when she was introduced, cheered when she took the ice, cheered when she finished. A small but boisterous Russian delegation contributed mightily to that cause, but still – a young woman who doped was welcomed as if she was any other competitor.

Each day that goes by, the stain on these Games, and the Olympic movement in general, grows darker.