Alex Ovechkin is a global superstar in his own right, but combine him with Olympic figure skating medalists, and that’s a Russian mega-celebrity meetup
The Washington Capitals captain met with Russian Olympic figure skaters Evgenia Medvedeva and Kamila Valieva, as documented in the latter’s Instagram story on Sunday.
The nature of their meeting wasn’t immediately clear, but Ovechkin told Sports.ru that he deeply respects the skaters “for their loyalty, for the fact that it’s hard work,” per a translation by Google Translate.
Hockey and figure skating are two of Russia’s most popular sports, and Ovechkin has previously engaged with the figure skating community in the DC area. He and his oldest son shared the ice with the Capitol Figure Skating Team during their practice at Capitals MedStar Iceplex in 2023, and he attended the Legacy on Ice tribute at Capital One Arena in March, honoring the skaters lost in the plane crash at DCA this January.
“I know a lot of figure skaters,” Ovechkin added. “If you look at Alexei Yagudin, Valieva, and Medvedeva here, these are the people who have achieved a lot through hard work, through willpower.”
It’s unclear if Yagudin was present at the meetup. He won gold in the men’s singles event at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, and Medvedeva earned two silver medals at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Valieva’s career, however, has been tainted by controversy. Russia’s team gold medal from the 2022 Beijing Olympics was stripped after a drawn-out investigation and legal battle determined that Valieva violated doping regulations in 2021. The medal was re-awarded to second-place finisher Team USA at the 2024 Paris Summer Games.
Valieva and Russia’s figure skating governing body maintained her innocence in the face of a backdated four-year ban handed down last January. That ban expires this December, but it’s not yet known if she’ll compete in the Winter Games in Milan-Cortina, Italy.
