Anastasiia Shabotova

On 21 January 2019, in an Instagram live question-and-answer session with her followers, then 13-year-old Shabotova claimed: "How to perform consistently? Drink a lot of dope and you perform stably. That's all. You just need to drink the right dope."[2] When asked if the skaters at Khrustalny (skaters coached by Eteri Tutberidze, Daniil Gleikhengauz, and Sergei Dudakov, including 2018 Olympic Champion Alina Zagitova) were doping, Shabotova responded: "Of course they do."[3] In response, Tutberidze told media that she was disappointed that younger skaters viewed doping as the key to success, rather than putting in hard work on the ice.[2]

Shabotova's comments led to her being cyberbullied by the Russian figure skating community.[1] Representatives of the Sambo-70 club, home of Khrustalny, demanded punishment for her and many coaches and prominent figures around the sport regarded her as a persona non grata.[2] However, several fellow athletes and fans came to Shabotova's defense, including two-time World Champion Irina Slutskaya.[3]

Figure Skating Federation of Russia president Aleksandr Gorshkov and Shabotova's coach, Svetlana Panova, both dismissed Shabotova's comments as nonsense. They attributed her comments to her youth and naivety, as well as being asked leading questions.[4] Panova disciplined the skater over her comments, but expressed that she did not wish to see Shabotova seriously punished for comments obviously meant in jest.[3] Shabotova's mother also insisted that her daughter did not understand the severity of her comments and was repeating words she may have incorrectly interpreted from gossip around her, and implied that her daughter did not know the difference between doping and taking vitamin supplements.[5] As punishment for her words, her mother confiscated her smartphone. She then asked that Shabotova's career not be ruined over her careless comments.[5]

Russian Anti-Doping Agency head Yuri Ganus promised to hold an explanatory conversation with Shabotova and announced that RUSADA was investigating whether there was any truth to her comments.[2][6] Representatives of the Moscow City Sports Department also spoke to Shabotova about the validity of her comments.[7]

Shabotova later posted a video on her Instagram account to apologize, stating that: "I said something stupid, maybe because I lost in my latest competition. I didn't think they'd misunderstand me."[3]

Shabotova began skating in 2009 under Irina Strahova in Moscow at the Moskvich School.[2] She moved to train Svetlana Panova and Tatiana Moiseeva at the Snow Leopards Sports School in the 2017–18 season. Shabotova had limited domestic success in Russia, with her highest result being 14th at the 2019 Russian Junior Championships.[8][7]

On 23 May 2019, Shabotova's request to switch nationalities from Russia to represent her mother's native Ukraine was unanimously approved by the executive committee of the Moscow Federation of Figure Skating.[6]

Shabotova spent the summer training with Rafael Arutyunyan in the United States, while keeping Panova as her head coach.[1] In August, Ukrainian national team head coach Marina Amirkhanova invited her to Ukrainian test skates, where she performed several triple Axel jumps.[1] Despite being age eligible for international competition, Shabotova was unable to compete on the Junior Grand Prix due to delays from the International Skating Union in processing her nationality transfer.[1][7]

In October 2019, Shabotova made her international debut at Ice Star, winning the junior gold medal over Niina Petrõkina of Estonia and former Russian teammate Kamila Sultanmagomedova.[7] Shabotova then won the silver medal at the Volvo Open Cup in November, behind Russian Ksenia Sinitsyna and ahead of Maria Bolsheva of Latvia.[9]

At the 2020 Ukrainian Championships in December, Shabotova won the senior gold medal by over 46 points ahead of Taisiya Spesivtseva and Anastasia Gozhva.[10] In her free skate, she unsuccessfully attempted a triple axel. In February, Shabotova again won gold at the 2020 Ukrainian Junior Championships, this time ahead of Dariya Kotenko and Mariia Andriichuk.[11] She finished her season at the 2020 World Junior Championships, finishing 20th overall after placing seventeenth in the short program and twentiehth in the free skate. She again unsuccessfully attempted a triple Axel jump in the free skate.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Junior Grand Prix, where Shabotova would have competed, was cancelled. She instead opened her season by winning gold at the 2020 Budapest Trophy in October. In the free skate, Shabotova became the twelfth lady to land a triple Axel internationally.[12]

Shabotova did not compete at the 2021 Ukrainian Junior Championships, but defended her senior national title at the 2021 Ukrainian Championships in February. She likely would have competed at the 2021 World Junior Championships before it was cancelled, as she was too young to be named to the 2021 World Championships team. Shabotova later revealed in an interview that she had contracted COVID-19 in early December and did not return to the ice until mid-January. She said that after returning to practice, she struggled with the lasting effects of the virus.[13]

Shabotova made her international senior debut at the 2021 CS Nebelhorn Trophy, tasked with qualifying a berth for a Ukrainian woman at the 2022 Winter Olympics. She placed fifth in the short program and fourth in the free skate, for fifth place overall and the fifth of six available Olympic spots. In the process, she also qualified a place for Ukraine in the team competition.[14]