The Telegraph Profile picture
Feb 10 9 tweets 4 min read
⛸️Kamila Valieva, the Russian 15-year-old figure skater, left spectators spellbound on Monday, when she became the first woman to land a quadruple jump at the #WinterOlympics

But now, her medal hangs in the balance.

Thread 👇🧵
telegraph.co.uk/winter-olympic…
📰It has been reported that Valieva tested positive for trimetazidine, a medicine used to prevent angina attacks and to treat vertigo, but which can also help endurance and increase blood flow efficiency.

The IOC is investigating.
Whatever the outcome, the alleged scandal has highlighted an unfortunate truth about figure skating.

🔴Behind the beauty and elegance lies a brutality, coaches and former skaters say; a gruelling training regime fuelled by intense stress
“There is constant pressure on the girls, and it is very present,” says Benoit Richaud, who skated for France’s men’s team between 2005 and 2009

🗣️“The girls have the impression that the peak of their careers should be at 15… you must be an adult at 15. It is ridiculous"
The sport’s brutal physical demands have led, in some cases, to an obsessive culture of dieting.

Former skaters talk of a pressure to stay pretty and petite; eating disorders are common
🇷🇺In Russia, the regime is even more brutal.

Young skaters routinely face 12-hour days on the ice, alongside gruelling flexibility and fitness exercises.
⭐️The very best are then sent to star coach Eteri Tutberidze.

Valieva was just 12 when she was granted her entry into her elite skating group.
🎖️Tutberidze – who was awarded Russia’s Order of Honour by Vladimir Putin in 2018 – has curated a controversial method to win

“When you learn the elements in adolescence, everything is easier – psychologically and injuries heal faster,” she has previously said.
The pressure on young skaters has intensified considerably since the mid-Nineties, coaches say.

➡️With each competition, they get younger and younger, and the medals are more highly coveted

Read more from @lukemintz,@VerityBowman and @genevieve_holl 👇
telegraph.co.uk/winter-olympic…

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More from @Telegraph

Feb 11
📰The Telegraph’s @christopherhope was there when the 2009 MPs’ Expenses Scandal broke.

In fact, he broke it

For the latest episode of 'I Witnessed History', Christopher takes us inside the biggest story of his career 👇
telegraph.co.uk/politics/0/mom…
💿“We’ve gotten hold of a disk containing the unredacted details of all MPs’ expenses”

Those are the words uttered to @christopherhope on an early 2009 Bank Holiday Monday.

What followed would become the biggest political scandal of the decade

telegraph.co.uk/politics/0/mom…
"We had every MP’s private address, bank details, we had everything. We were literally inside their private lives"

"What bore heavily on us was whether we were being hoodwinked by somebody - are these documents real?" says @christopherhope Image
Read 4 tweets
Feb 11
🔴Lockdown meant two in three new mothers went through labour without their partner

A damning report found that women giving birth were left isolated by Covid restrictions

#Thread 👇

telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/1… Image
The Care Quality Commission also found:

❌A significant fall in the use of pain relief
❌A rise in caesarean sections
❌Fewer women being offered support as they recovered from childbirth
The regulator surveyed more than 23,000 women who gave birth during February 2021, when the country was in the middle of the third national lockdown Image
Read 9 tweets
Feb 10
🚨 BREAKING: Dame Cressida Dick is to stand down as Metropolitan Police Commissioner, the Telegraph understands

telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/…
Dame Cressida, who was appointed Met Commissioner in 2017, was awarded a two year extension to her contract in September

telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/… Image
🔴 But it is understood that Dame Cressida's relationship with the Mayor of London had deteriorated to such an extent in recent days she felt she could no longer continue

telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/…
Read 13 tweets
Feb 10
🍏No matter how bad your lifestyle habits, it’s never too late to start living healthily – and you could gain a decade in the process.

Here are seven things you can do in your 60s to guarantee a longer life…

#Thread 👇

telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness…
A major study this week suggests that switching to a healthier diet even in your sunset years can add a decade to your life
🥦Even if you’ve been living a highly processed life with very few greens, it might not be too late to make a change
Read 8 tweets
Feb 9
🔴 An early version of Covid-19 that appears to have been grown in a laboratory has been discovered in samples from a Chinese biotechnology firm

Read more: telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/0…
The new finding lends weight to claims that the virus may have started life as a lab experiment that accidentally leaked out

telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/0…
🧬Bioinformatics experts from the University of Veterinary Medicine and Lorand University in Budapest, Hungary, made the discovery by accident while examining genetic data from soil samples collected from Antarctica in late 2018 and early 2019
Read 7 tweets
Feb 9
☕Coffee could help you live longer - and scientists now know how many cups a day you need.

#Thread 👇

telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/0…
Almost half a million Britons enrolled in the UK Biobank study were divided by their coffee intake:

❌Those who drank none
☕️☕️☕️Those taking up to three cups
☕️☕️☕️☕️Those drinking more than three cups a day
The study revealed moderate coffee drinkers — up to three cups a day — were 12 per cent less likely to die over the study’s 11-year period Image
Read 8 tweets

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