A major change: four months after the resounding Valieva affair which had splashed the Beijing Olympics, the International Skating Federation (ISU) on Tuesday raised the minimum age for skaters and figure skaters to 17 to participate in senior competitions.
The debate on the very young age of skaters – and especially skaters – resurfaced during the Olympic Games in the wake of Russian Kamila Valieva. A big favorite for the Olympic title at only 15 years old, the young skater had cracked under the pressure after finding herself at the center of a resounding doping scandal.
The reform, endorsed by delegates from 100 countries at the ISU Congress in Phuket, Thailand, will be implemented in two phases. The minimum age will first increase to 16 during the 2023-2024 season, then to 17 from 2024-2025.
Objective: to avoid the physical and mental breakage of skaters whose high-level sports career is often very short.
“It’s a historic decision”, welcomed the president of the ISU, Jan Dijkema, while the director general of the body Fredi Schmid had called the vote a “moment of truth” before the opening of the Congress.
“The credibility of the ISU will be tested,” he added. “The media and the public will be watching us very closely.”
The ISU stressed that raising the age limit had been on its agenda long before the Valieva case and recognized that it was its duty to safeguard the health of young sportswomen.
«Obligation morale»
The reform had previously received the approval of the medical commission of the International Federation.
“It is your moral obligation and duty to provide young skaters with the opportunity and time to develop the skills they need to succeed at senior level,” said Dr. Jane Moran, who leads the medical commission. They have the right to develop as people during their adolescence. They don’t need us to force them to compete.”
According to a survey conducted by the ISU Athletes’ Commission of 1,000 skaters and coaches, 86% of them were in favor of raising the minimum age.
Figure skating is indeed a demanding sport, where young girls chain hours of repetitive training, jumps and pirouettes, at an age when their bodies are still developing.
To succeed in triple or even quadruple jumps, a slender silhouette is also a definite advantage and after puberty, when the size thickens, jumps become more difficult to master. The skaters then find themselves on the sidelines, replaced by others even younger.
This is not the first time that a measure to raise the age of skaters has been submitted to the vote of the ISU. In 2018, an equivalent proposal was rejected, notably coming up against Russian opposition, a flagship nation in the discipline.
