Last night, at the conclusion of women’s figure skating, the whole world witnessed the merciless destruction of a fifteen-year-old girl, Kamila Valieva. She became the sacrificial victim of failed system, communism, a system that pretends to succeed by lying and bullying.

Kamila Valieva was a pleasure to watch on the ice, so light, so graceful, with unmatched skills that made her a near lock for a gold medal. Instead, she was reduced to tears, shamed and berated by her own people for collapsing under the criticism surrounding her positive dope test.

There is no way that a fifteen year old girl decides to take a banned substance. A quad axel doesn’t come out of the end of a needle, it comes from years of hard work and practice. No, that needle was used by the corrupt, godless system that needs to cheat to win. Its compulsion is to dominate by any means necessary, afraid to complete in an honest contest of skills. They didn’t have to cheat for Kamila to win; they just can’t help themselves.

The sight of that young grief-stricken girl sobbing on the sidelines, receiving no comfort from those who were responsible for her, made me angrier than I have been in a long while. The communist system failed her, and quite possibly destroyed her last night. And everyone knew it. Her teammates knew it. The other competitors knew it. The whole world saw it, the deliberate destruction of a human being for the sake of a ruthless, failed, oppressive regime.

I wished at that moment that someone could swoop in, and take her away, that Kamila would be cared for, nurtured, given time to rest and heal. Then I pictured in my mind her return to the olympics in four years, a free woman representing a country that would value her as a human being, vibrant, confident, and skating her way to the gold medal she deserves.

Luke 17:1-2 (ESV) Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.