Figure Skating’s global governing body on Tuesday voted to gradually raise the minimum age limit for elite competitors to 17 over the next three years. It categorized the move as an attempt to protect Skaters’ “physical and mental health and emotional well-being”, but made its decision after facing worldwide criticism for damaging a 15-year-old Russian champion in a doping scandal. Women’s singles at this year’s Beijing Winter Olympics.
There was a change in the rule raising the age limit Approved At the annual meeting of the International Skating Union in Phuket, Thailand. The change will be gradual, the skating union said: no change in the 2022-23 season. But the so-called senior skaters must be 16 years old in 2023-24 and 17 years old in the 2024-25 campaign.
A new, higher age limit will be in effect for the next Winter Olympics in Milan and Cordina, Italy in 2026.
The decision comes just months after a major doping scandal involving Russian skater Camila Valeva, then just 15 years old, at the Winter Olympics in Beijing. Valeva, one of the world’s top skaters and aspiring to win a gold medal, was tested positive for a banned drug ahead of the Olympics. This scandal has raised questions about the physical and mental safety of young skaters and whether enough has been done to protect them from the adults who are leading their lives.
The proposal seemed to gain widespread support in the international figure skating community, where the issue of implementing a certain minimum age has been debated and debated for years.
At Tuesday’s meeting, two people abstained from voting by 16 to 100 votes.
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