Here we go again. The lights are on. The music is loud. The costumes cost more than your car. It is time for the **Milan 2026 Winter Olympics**. You know what that means. It means for two weeks, we all pretend to care about things like "fair play" and "spirit." We wave our little flags. We cry when they play the anthems. We act like this is some holy gathering of the world’s best people.

Stop kidding yourselves. It is a circus. It is a reality TV show with better lighting. And just like any bad reality show, the same villains keep showing up to ruin the party.

Let’s talk about the latest drama on the ice. We have a new skater to look at: **Adeliia Petrosian**. She is 18 years old. She is from Russia. By all accounts, she is very good at what she does. She jumps high. She spins fast. She lands on one foot without falling down. If this was just about skating, she would be the one to watch. She has the résumé of a winner.

But in the world of the **Russian figure skating team**, it is never just about skating. It is about who owns you. It is about who tells you what to eat and what to drink. And that is where the smell gets bad.

This young girl is tied to the same coaches who were at the center of the last big mess. Do you remember the last Winter Games? Do you remember the name **Kamila Valieva**? Of course you do. It was a disaster. There were failed drug tests. There were tears. There were lawyers arguing in back rooms while a teenage girl fell apart on live TV. It was ugly. It made you feel gross just watching it.

Well, guess what? The people who ran that team are still around. The coaches who were in charge when everything went wrong are still in the game. They are the ones standing behind the wall while Petrosian skates.

This is why I hate this whole thing. In the real world, if you mess up that badly, you get fired. If you run a restaurant and poison the food, they shut you down. You don’t get to open a new restaurant the next day with a new menu. But in the world of big sports, it doesn't work that way. Winning is the only thing that matters. Gold medals are the only currency. If you can produce a winner, nobody cares how much dirt you have under your fingernails.

So now we have this 18-year-old girl. She is stepping onto the biggest stage in the world. And before she even skates a single line, there are questions. There is a dark cloud over her head. It isn't her fault, really. She is just a kid. She is a tool being used by a machine. She does what she is told. But because of the people around her, nobody can just watch her skate. We have to wonder. We have to squint at the screen and ask, "Is this real?"

It ruins the whole show. But maybe the show was already ruined. Maybe it was never clean to begin with.

Think about the people running the Olympics. They talk a big game about rules. They love to ban things. They love to act tough. But when push comes to shove, they are weak. They let the same characters come back again and again. Why? Because they need the drama. They need the ratings. A boring Olympics where everyone follows the rules doesn't sell ads. A messy Olympics with scandals and villains? That keeps people watching.

We are part of the problem, too. You and me. We sit on our couches eating chips and judging these people. We say we want clean sports. We say we hate cheaters. But we love the gossip. We love pointing fingers. If Petrosian wins, half the world will say it is fake. If she loses, her own team will probably toss her aside like a broken toy. It is a meat grinder.

It is tragic, really. This girl spent her whole life training for this moment. She probably wakes up at four in the morning every day. Her feet probably bleed. She gives up everything to be the best. And now that she is here, nobody is talking about her talent. They are talking about her bosses. They are talking about a scandal from years ago. Her big moment is already stained before it even happens.

That is the state of things today. Nothing is fresh. Nothing is new. We just recycle the same old garbage and put a new label on it. The Left screams about fairness. The Right screams about national pride. The officials scream about rules. And in the middle of all that noise, the actual sport dies.

So go ahead and watch. Cheer if you want. Boo if you want. Just don't pretend it means anything. It’s just people sliding on frozen water, trying to outrun the shadows of the people standing behind them. And the shadows are always faster.

### References & Fact-Check * **Source:** [Questions Swirl Around Russian Figure Skater in Her Olympic Debut](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/world/europe/russian-figure-skater-milan-olympics.html) (New York Times) * **Context:** Adeliia Petrosian trains under Eteri Tutberidze, the coach involved in the 2022 Beijing doping controversy. * **Event:** Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.