Sochi Olympics figure skating champ Lipnitskaya 'retires at 19' following anorexia treatment
Sochi 2014 figure skating champion Yulia Lipnitskaya has retired from professional sports, her mother revealed on Monday.
“Yulia informed the [Russian Ice Skating] federation about her plans to retire in April, right after she came back from Europe, where she underwent a three-month treatment for anorexia,” Daniela Lipnitskaya told TASS on Monday.
The Figure Skating Federation of Russia, however, says it has not received an official letter from the 19-year-old Lipnitskaya regarding her retirement.
“Although Yulia is in the reserve list, she is the Russian team roster,” the head of the federation, Aleksandr Gorshkov, told TASS.
“I cannot reply to the rumors. My position makes me work with the facts. (We) should wait for the statement from Yulia, before that it’s only talk,” he added.
Lipnitskaya became the youngest-ever Russian athlete to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics, when she was part of the victorious team at the 2014 Games in Sochi, aged just 15 years and 249 days old.
She has previously complained about having to follow a strict diet to compete in figure skating, replying to rumors that she was pregnant by saying that she had simply gained some weight.
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“I am not pregnant, you are getting to me. Have a conscience. I can’t be 37kg all my life just to make everybody happy. I have been dieting enough already, (it’s) enough!” she wrote replying to comments on the social media.
Aside from winning gold in the team competition in Sochi, she has claimed gold and silver in the Ladies Singles events in Japan and Budapest respectively. She also won gold and silver medals at the Junior Championships in 2012 and 2013.
