MILAN (AP) — Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva's coach from the Beijing Games is back at the Winter Olympics, and World Anti-Doping Agency president Witold Banka isn’t happy about it.
Banka said Thursday he's not comfortable with Eteri Tutberidze’s presence at the Milan Cortina Olympics. She is accredited with Georgia as the coach of European champion Nika Egadze.
In 2022, Tutberidze was coaching Valieva, the young Russian whose positive doping test overshadowed the Games.
Valieva, then aged 15, was at the center of a legal battle in Beijing when a sample she gave two months earlier tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine. The revelation came after Valieva won team gold with other Russian skaters. She was later disqualified from that event, which upgraded the United States to gold. Valieva was a contender for the women’s gold medal but placed fourth and was criticized rink-side by Tutberidze.
Tutberidze's scolding of Valieva drew public rebukes.
“It’s not our decision the coach is here,” Banka said Thursday at a news conference in Milan. “The investigation found no evidence that this particular person was engaged in this doping process, so there’s no legal basis to exclude her from the presence during the Olympic Games.”
“But of course, if you ask me personally about my feelings,” he continued, “I don’t feel comfortable with her presence here in the Olympic Games, for sure.”
The Georgian Figure Skating Federation did not respond to a request for comment.
Valieva's ban expired in December, despite legal efforts to have it overturned. She returned to competition last month but is not competing in Milan where another Russian skater, Adeliia Petrosian, is a contender for the women’s gold medal as an Individual Neutral Athlete who has been coached by Tutberidze for years.
Tutberidze’s daughter, Diana Davis, will compete in Milan for Georgia in ice dance with her partner, Gleb Smolkin.
Rules have been changed to raise the minimum age for skaters to 17 in time for the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
A worker cleans the seats during a figure skating practice session at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva competes at the Russian Jumping Championships in Moscow, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)
FILE - Eteri Tutberidze, coach of Georgia's Nika Egadze, waits for his performance in men's free skating during the ISU European Figure Skating Championships in Kaunas, Lithuania, Friday, Jan. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis, File)
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Gunmen believed to be Islamic extremists have killed scores of people in a western Nigerian state that is becoming a new hot spot of violence that affects large parts of Africa's most populous country.
Local officials said at least 162 people died in the Tuesday attack and said the victims in the Muslim-majority villages of Woro and Nuku in Kwara state were targeted for refusing extremist ideology. The gunmen razed homes and looted shops.
The attack is the latest in a surge in violence in Kwara, as well as other conflict hot spots, despite recent support from the U.S. military.
Separately on Thursday, the governor of Kaduna state announced that all 183 people abducted from churches last month are free. He did not give details of how this was achieved.
Nigeria is facing a protracted fight with dozens of local armed groups increasingly battling for turf, including Islamist sects like the homegrown Boko Haram and its breakaway faction Islamic State West Africa Province. There is also the Islamic State group-linked Lakurawa, as well as other “bandit” groups that specialize in kidnapping for ransom and in illegal mining.
Recently, the crisis has worsened to include other militants from the neighboring Sahel region, including the Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, which claimed its first attack on Nigerial soil last year.
Anaysts say Nigeria’s recent military campaigns against the armed groups in the north, added to the growing competition within the groups, have contributed to the groups moving to new areas like Kwara through vast forests that make it difficult to hunt them.
“We may likely see the situation where these groups may come together to confront their common enemy, which is the state,” said Malik Samuel, a security researcher at Good Governance Africa.
The United States is supporting Nigeria in its military campaigns against the armed groups, despite some disagreements.
This week, the head of U.S. Africa Command said a small team of U.S. military officers are in Nigeria, focused on intelligence support.
Nigeria has been in the diplomatic crosshairs of the U.S. in recent months following threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to attack the country, alleging it is not doing enough to protect its Christian citizens.
While Christians have been among those targeted, analysts say the majority of victims of armed groups are Muslims in Nigeria’s north, where most attacks occur.
But those tensions have since eased and the two countries have begun to cooperate. In December, U.S. forces launched airstrikes on IS-affiliated militants in Nigeria.
Last month, Nigeria’s government also said the U.S. has pledged to deliver military equipment purchased by the country but not yet delivered in recent years over concerns about possible human rights abuses by Nigeria’s security forces.
Kwara State Gov. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq said Tuesday’s attack was likely carried out in response to recent counterterrorism operations in the region. Some of these operations have been launched based on intelligence from local communities.
Mohammed Omar Bio, a federal lawmaker from the district, blamed the attack on Lakurawa, whose members were targeted by U.S. strikes in December, forcing some of them to flee to areas like Kwara.
Experts say that Kwara, which has seen a recent spike in deadly attacks and kidnappings, is fast becoming a new frontier for armed groups seeking to expand.
Banchereau reported from Dakar, Senegal, and Adetayo from Lagos, Nigeria.
Kaduna State Governor, Uba Sani, right, holds a child, freed with other worshipers, abducted by gunmen in Kurmin Wali, upon their arrival at the state government house in Kaduna, Nigeria, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Abel Omotosho)
Freed church worshipers who were abducted by gunmen in Kurmin Wali, are seen upon their arrival at the state government house in Kaduna, Nigeria, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Abel Omotosho)
Freed church worshipers who were abducted by gunmen in Kurmin Wali, applaud upon their arrival at the state government house in Kaduna, Nigeria, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Abel Omotosho)
