FILE PHOTO: Beijing 2022 Olympic Games – Figure Skating – Women’s Individual Skating – Free Skating – Capital Indoor Stadium, Beijing, China – February 17, 2022. Kamila Valieva of the Russian Olympic Committee reacts after the competition REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo
The International Skating Union (ISU) has proposed raising the minimum age for senior figure skating competition from 17 to 17 before the 2026 Winter Olympics to help young athletes cope with the physical and sports psychology.
According to proposals on the agenda of its 58th congress in Thailand next month, the sport’s governing body said it hoped to gradually increase the minimum age over the next three years ahead of the Milano Cortina Games. .
“It is conceivable that allowing underage athletes to compete could expose them to burdens and risks deemed inappropriate for their age,” the ISU medical commission wrote in the proposal.
“Not only physically, but in terms of the child’s psychological and social development. Junior athletes face multiple stressors on their path to elite sport.
The proposal comes after Russia’s Kamila Valieva, then 15, fell to fourth place in the women’s singles at the Beijing Winter Olympics this year, bowing to the pressure of a doping controversy.
The ISU medical board said young athletes are exposed to high physiological loads caused by training and competition.
“Ultimately, performance enhancement is normally the central concern of ambitious athletes, as athletes themselves and by others continually assess their achievements,” the medical commission added.
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