‘She has brought figure skating to the height of real art’: Putin awards Kamila Valieva the Order of Friendship

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has awarded the Olympic champion in figure skating, native of Kazan Kamila Valieva the Order of Friendship.

“She has absorbed all the most complex elements of figure skating into her talent — she has brought the sport to the height of the most complex art," the president said.

The president also noted that April 26 is the birthday of the Russian figure skater and offered to congratulate her.

“It is a great honour for me to receive a state award on my sixteenth birthday. Thank you for loving sports and supporting athletes. This is very important for us," Valieva said.

In March, Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov awarded Kamila Valieva the Order of Duslyk. The head of the republic presented the medal "100 years of formation of the TASSR” to the athlete's mother.

Let us remind that the Russian national team, including Kamila Valieva, won the figure skating team competition at the 2022 Olympics, but the medal ceremony has not yet been held due to the doping scandal. Following the results of the short programme, Valieva became the best in women's single skating, scoring 82.16 points. However, in the free programme, due to mistakes made, the athlete became the fourth.

Who else awarded

Figure skaters Alexander Gallyamov, Nikita Katsalapov, Mark Kondratyuk, Anastasia Mishina, and Victoria Sinitsina, as well as skiers Denis Spitsov, Veronika Stepanova, and Aleksey Chervotkin received the award from the hands of the head of the state. The medal ceremony was held in the Catherine Hall of the Kremlin.

Earlier, Aide to the President of Russia Igor Levitin and Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko presented medals “For Services to the Fatherland” to Tatarstan Olympic medalists in Beijing. The medals of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland of the first degree were awarded to ski jumper Danil Sadreev and hockey player Timur Bilyalov. The medals of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland of the second degree were awarded to the bronze medalists of the Olympics, snowboarder Vic Wild and figure skater Evgenia Tarasova.