Figure skating’s governing body will vote later this year on a proposal to raise the minimum age for senior competitions to 17, it said in an email to AFP Friday.
The sport has been under intense scrutiny at the Beijing Olympics after 15-year-old Russian prodigy Kamila Valieva was allowed to compete despite failing a drugs test before the Games, with her youth cited as a factor in the decision.
Questions around the influence her entourage may have had on Valieva, as well as her public breakdown on Thursday after an error-ridden performance that saw her only place fourth, have led to calls to raise the competition age from its current minimum of 15.