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17-Year-Old Anna Shcherbakova Feeling Empty Despite Victory at Beijing Winter Olympics 2022

Published 02/19/2022, 8:15 AM EST

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How do you define a feeling of victory? Well, there is no specific way to do that. Different players have different reactions when they reach the moment they’ve prepared for their entire lives. Some might feel the joy of achieving their dreams, while for some, the feeling of relief mixed with surreal realization remains inexplicable.

The 17-year-old Russian figure skater, Anna Shcherbakova, has created history in the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022. Overtaking her compatriot and top favorite, Kamila Valieva, in the women’s free skating event, she won her first Olympic gold on Thursday. With a final score of 255.95 points, Anna secured the first position, followed by her teammate, Alexandra Trusova, in second place.

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Anna Shcherbakova feels empty inside

While some players would jump off their feet for such an exemplary achievement, Anna Shcherbakova is not one of them. After winning the gold, analyst Jackie Wong reported Anna saying, “It’s hard to tell. I have mixed feelings – I was very happy to be in the right time and the right place. This has been what I’ve been working toward everyday. I still can’t comprehend what has happened – on one hand, I feel this emptiness inside.”

 

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Notably, post her victory, Anna was also spotted sitting alone as the rest of her team comforted Alexandra Trusova, who was far from happy with her silver medal. As this further added to the ongoing controversy with Kamila Valieva, it was heartbreaking to see Anna’s triumphant victory go unnoticed.

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Nevertheless, Anna is the Olympic champion, and her performance at the finals was clean and breathtaking.

Kamila Valieva couldn’t finish at the podium

Despite the doping controversy, the 15-year-old skater Kamila Valieva was the top favorite in the women’s free skating event. However, her performance in the finals was sloppy and could only push her to fourth place. The skater was obviously devastated by the result, as she couldn’t hold back her tears.

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On Kamila’s final performance, the gold medalist, Anna Shcherbakova, said, “During Kamila’s [free skate], I was just thinking the Olympics are done. I saw from her first jump what a burden it was for her—I will tell her how I feel about it personally later.”

Whereas, when asked about Kamila’s participation amidst doping controversy, the champion said, “Sorry, I will not talk about this situation.” 

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WATCH THIS STORY- US Olympic Gold Medalist Chloe Kim tried to Sabotage TV Actor Mark Wahlberg- Heres the Full Story 

What do you think went wrong for the Russian Olympic team at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics? Do you think they need to further introspect into how they can take care of their athletes’ mental well-being?

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Written by:

Saurav Panwar

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Saurav Panwar is a US Sports writer at EssentiallySports. A postgraduate in Media and Communication Studies, he shares a profound love for creative direction and filmmaking. Saurav is also an avid reader and a literature devotee whose fandom spreads from classics to sci-fi, non-fiction, plays, comics, and much more.
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