Eddy about doping at ice skating star Valiewa

The Olympic Games have their first doping case, and once again it involves a Russian athlete. 15-year-old figure skating shooting star Kamila Valiyeva tested positive at the Russian championships in December. But much is still dubious and unclear.

Kamila Valiyeva could have become one of the stars of the Beijing games.

Natacha Pisarenko / AP

The suspicion of a Russian doping case had been raised in Beijing for days. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) asked for a specific statement. It fueled the rumors itself by suspending the awards ceremony of Tuesday’s team figure skating competition. The Russian team had won gold there ahead of the USA and Japan.

On Friday morning, the international testing agency ITA, commissioned by the IOC, clarified the matter somewhat: Kamila Valiewa tested positive for trimatazidine on December 25th at the national figure skating championships in St. Petersburg. The heart drug is on the list of banned substances as a performance-enhancing drug.

A dubious process

The Russian anti-doping agency Rusada initially suspended the athlete as a precaution, but then lifted the ban after she appealed. Valiyeva excelled in the team competition and led the Russians to Olympic gold. In addition to the quick lifting of the suspension, it is also dubious that it took so long for the test result to be available. It is said to have been in a Stockholm laboratory for six weeks that was responsible for evaluating the sample.

The matter has additional explosiveness because the Russian athletes are only allowed to compete at the Beijing Games thanks to an exceptional regulation. Because of state-organized doping in the context of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, the world anti-doping agency Wada officially excluded Russia from all international sports competitions for four years in December 2019. It may neither organize competitions nor send official representatives to such. The International Sports Court in Lausanne (TAS) later halved the ban to two years.

As at the games in Rio 2016, Pyeongchang 2018 and Tokyo 2021, 103 Russians and 109 Russians will be at the start in Beijing under the name “Russian Olympic Athletes” (ROC) under a neutral flag. At award ceremonies, Peter Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 will be played instead of the national anthem.

The IOC opened this back door to the Russians with the argument that they do not want athletes to be held collectively liable for the misconduct of individual officials. Therefore, special attention is now being paid to how the renewed potential offense by the Russians will be sanctioned. On behalf of the IOC, the test agency ITA has applied to the International Sports Court in Lausanne to appeal against the lifting of the ban on Valiyeva. IOC spokesman Mark Adams said on Friday: “We have a 100% anti-doping policy and will of course follow doping cases to the end.”

But time is pressing. The women’s individual competition begins on Tuesday, in which Kamila Valiewa is one of the closest favorites. Adams says the IOC will do everything it can to speed up the process. The ITA announced in a media release that Rusada’s actual doping procedure in the Valiyeva case, which also includes the athlete’s right to request an opening of the B sample, will be continued “in due course”.

“A catastrophic failure”

It is quite possible that both the outcome of the women’s team and individual event will remain in the ranking lists for weeks with reservations. The damage is already immense. Travis Tygart, the American CEO of the World Anti-Doping Agency Wada says: “The whole thing is a catastrophic failure of athletes and public trust.”

The case concerns an athlete who could have become one of the big stars of these games. Internationally recognized experts are already calling you one of the greatest talents in the history of ice skating.

On April 26, Valiyeva will only be celebrating her 16th birthday. At the age of three and a half she skated for the first time in Kazan. In 2012 she moved to Moscow with her family and has been coached there by Eteri Tutberidze since last summer. The former figure skater has previously trained absolute world-class skaters such as Olympic champions Alina Sagitova and Julija Lipniskaja. Her clientele also includes Yevgenia Medvedeva, the 2016 and 2017 world champion.

At the age of 14, Kamila Waliewa was already second at the Russian Championships, and in January in Tallinn she became European Champion for the first time. But even this first big title among the elite now appears in a different light after the positive doping test in December. Russia’s sport does not seem to come to rest and reflection.


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