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Allowing Valieva to compete ruins the competition

Figure skating is a beautiful sport and it takes a lot of talent and work to be good at it. It’s the same as any sport at the Olympics. Years and years of practice and hard work leads up to performing at the world or even national level.

It’s certainly something to be proud of.

Until it isn’t.

When athletes start using performance enhancing drugs the entire competition suffers. Performance enhancing drugs allow athletes to cut corners and make the playing field uneven. When an athlete’s talent comes from a bottle and not hard work it makes the entire competition less interesting.

In 2014, Russia was banned from the Olympics due to athletes being encouraged to take performance enhancing drugs to help them medal. This ban wasn’t supposed to last very long, but has been continually renewed since then.

The Olympics is all about seeing the best athletes compete against each other. But they didn’t want to just shut out good athletes because they’re from Russia and might be doping. So, the Russian Olympic Committee (R.O.C.) was made and ‘neutral’ athletes were allowed to compete.

That seemed like a pretty good idea. It got rid of the athletes that were known for doping and allowed athletes that weren’t to compete fairly. A factor that was overlooked was the Russian coaches. There were far less coaches penalized than the Russian athletes.

I believe that overlooking a coach’s influence on athletes led to the current issues women’s figure skating is facing. Kamila Valieva, a 15-year-old figure skater, is amazing. Watching her skate looks effortless and graceful. Her tricks are impressive but her presence on the ice is what makes her really stand out. No performance enhancing drugs were needed for her grace on skates.

She probably would have won gold without performance enhancing drugs. Everyone would have watched in awe and cheered for her. Now she will win with no ceremony and her competitors will place after her knowing that they are skating in a losing race.

Valieva will continue to compete at the Olympics even though she tested positive for three different drugs. She claims she came in contact with one of the drugs due to sharing a drink with her grandfather. However, the likelihood of having enough of the drug in her system to test positive for it just from sharing a drink with her grandfather is extremely low.

Valieva is allowed to compete because of her age. The Olympic rules say minors are anyone that are less than 16 years old at the Olympics. So although she tested positive, the responsibility for the positive results don’t fall on Kamila they fall onto her coach, Eteri Tutberidze.

Tutberidze is known for her

extreme methods of training and most of her skaters quit or burnout by the time they are in their teens. She admitted to only letting a skater eat powdered food when they needed to lose weight. With her harsh methods the Olympic Velvet Jessen committee finds it fit to place the suspicions on her. And I think they’re right. Valieva may have taken them willingly, but I doubt she thought of it on her own. She needed to deal with her harsh methods and be the star she thought she was supposed to do. Unfortunately, it comes at the cost of the other athletes, who now must compete knowing it’s unfair and that if they and Valieva place none of them will receive a medals ceremony. Not only is the Russian team getting away with doping again they are depriving other athletes of a real Olympic experience.

EDITORIAL

EDITOR-In-CHIEF Aubrie Lawrence editor@csceagle.com

NEWS EDITOR news@csceagle.com

OPINION EDITOR Velvet Jessen opinion@csceagle.com

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AG & RANGE EDITOR Kamryn Kozisek ageditor@csceagle.com

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Participation on The Eagle staff is open to all Chadron State College students. The Eagle is a student newspaper produced by and for students of Chadron State College. Opinions expressed in editorials and columns written by the student staff belong solely to the authors. As a public forum, The Eagle invites guest columns and letters to the editor from all readers. Opinions expressed in submissions belong solely to the author(s) and DO NOT necessarily reflect the opinions of The Eagle staff, its adviser, CSC students, staff, faculty, administrators or governing body. Please limit all guest columns or letters to 400 words. Deadline for submissions is noon Monday for consideration in the following Thursday’s edition. The Eagle reserves the right to edit or reject all submissions.

6Feb. 17, 2022 | The Eagle | csceagle.com Opinion

As We See It

Professional sports are a selfish industry

u By Kameryn Kozisek

Staff Editor

As someone who can never get into sports, unless I know someone in them, I think professional sports, particularly the NFL are a waste of money.

I understand the need for entertainment and maybe those competing in the Olympics but for some reason I just can’t justify paying someone millions to play a sport.

Americans spend a lot of money on the Super Bowl alone, on food, tickets, TV services and fan gear. In fact, according to the National Retail Federation, Americans spent $14.6 billion during this last Super Bowl.

Imagine all the other things Americans could be spending $14 billion on. According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, homelessness could be solved with approximately $20 billion.

The point is the U.S. has a lot of problems, the poverty level, child hunger, homelessness, the foster system and decreasing food production. One day a year, we are spending more than enough to help with these problems and yet we choose to spend it on big entertainment.

Professional sports companies make money off Americans with ease, the more controversy, the more money they make. According to Forbes in 2021, the total of all the NFL teams worth was at $107.89 billion.

I understand supporting Olympic, college and student athletes but I can not support a pointless competition. Fans get bragging rights when your team wins and those teams won your millions even if they lose. Players on the winning team will make $120,000 just for Kameryn Kozisek

winning, according to the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The professional sports industry is based on using people’s competitive nature against them to make money.

We spend plenty on sports teams that probably don’t care about those who are watching, unless they start losing money.

NFL players were also found to be more likely to be arrested for violent crimes then the general population.

A study done by the Journal of Criminal Justice and found that while arrest rates for the NFL were lower than the national average, violent crimes rates were higher. For this study violent crimes include, sexual assault, aggravated assault, DUI manslaughter, murder, rape, domestic violence, kidnapping and child abuse.

Maybe it’s just me but I think it is hard to support a group that

is more likely to commit violent crimes. There are so many things going ““Maybe its just me but I think it is hard to support a group on in the world and in our country today. There are homeless veterans, high suicide rates in young people and school violence. Often the arguments that is more likely to commit that we face when solving these issues are how much money is solving violent crimes.” them worth. Well when we as - Kamryn Kozisek Americans are willing to spend billions on watching a bunch of men in pads tackle each other over a ball but don’t donate that extra dollar to a children’s hospital. Maybe its not the industry itself that is selfish, maybe it’s that they are just taking advantage of the people supporting it.

Kill time online with The Eagle

u By Madyson Schliep

Staff Editor

Social media is an important part of most students lives. It is also important for organizations and busineses to use social media to reach a large and broad audience. For a student organization such as The Eagle we are using social media to enhance our student run newspaper in a time where social media is outpacing print newspapers.

As our social media director, I want to enlighten students on what goes on behind the scenes of our weekly newspaper while also working with our editors to connect with you so that we can help ensure that your voice is heard.

My name is Madyson Schliep, and I am the Digital Content Director for The Eagle. I am in my 3rd year here at Chadron State College, majoring in sports and recreation with an emphasis in exercise science. I am also a student athlete on the track and field team here. I compete in throwing events.

Becoming the digital content director for The Eagle gave me an excuse, like many in our generation to kill time on social media.

Well, that’s my excuse what’s yours?

Developing content across three platforms presents numerous challenges. Keeping content fresh and relatable requires imagination, and understanding of our audience (which is you guys), and a discipline to write this column and others with thoughtful foresight so that I don’t put myself under the strain of a nagging deadline which, I face now.

I currently have a crotchety adviser helping (nagging) me to finish in the next fifteen minutes so that I can be at the phonathon on time.

Oddly his help is working, and much to my surprise he’s earning his keep today.

As a column writer, spotlighting The Eagle’s social media platforms allows for free self-promotion. It’s fun. It’s pressure. It’s fun. It’s challenging. It’s fun. It’s distracting to our other editors as were working on deadline. It’s fun.

But don’t take my word for it, check out the insanity.

To heck with joining the conversation, join our madness by following us on Instagram, and Tiktok @ thecsceagle and on twitter @ csceagle.

Oh and by the way, I am done seven minutes before the phonathon starts, just enough time to walk through the snow on my way there.

Madyson Schliep