Russian skating dominance less about drugs, more about math

By DAVE SKRETTA
AP Sports Writer

BEIJING (AP) — The dominance of Russian women in Olympic figure skating has less to do with performance-enhancing drugs and more to do with something much simpler: math. Their coterie of teenage wunderkinds are able to pu ll of jumps nobody else can do. That gives them an unassailable advantage even when they fall, like 15-year-old star Kamila Valieva almost did during her short program Tuesday night. It’s the unintentional byproduct of the International Skating Union’s attempt at a more equitable scoring system after the 2002 Salt Lake City judging scandal. Instead, that instead created a convoluted system that values daring-do over artistic performance.