Opportunities for Germans increase
Valiewa Theater superimposed EM despite starting ban
01/23/2023, 5:19 p.m
Kamila Valiyeva has lost her national title, but she will not be banned by Russia’s anti-doping agency because of her positive doping test. But the World Anti-Doping Agency will probably change that. This is not so relevant for the European Figure Skating Championships, since the Russians are not allowed to start anyway.
Kamila Valiyeva deleted the gold medal emoji for winning the 2021 Russian Figure Skating Championships in St. Petersburg on her Instagram account. It is uncertain whether she will ever be able to present such a celebration symbol to her 1.2 million followers again. Because Russia’s anti-doping agency (RUSADA) has stripped the 16-year-old European champion of her national title because of the positive doping test for the banned substance trimetazidine, but she has not been banned. A “guilt or negligence” could not be proven, it said. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is unlikely to accept the verdict.
“I assume that a ban will follow, even if I feel sorry for the girl,” said Andreas Wagner, President of the German Skating Union. “The fact that the national title was taken away from her seems as if RUSADA threw down a chunk to show: ‘We’re doing something.'”
In Russia, too, there is no illusion that the cause could be over. “There is no doubt that the conflict in the case of Kamila Valiyeva will not end after Rusada’s decision,” wrote the Kommersant newspaper. And on the sports portal championat.com it said: “Does that mean that Kamila is now fully pardoned and that she can compete without having to fear further penalties? Not at all.”
“There is still justice in the world”
Former star coach Tatyana Tarasova – always a defender of the young Russian – welcomed the RUSADA slogan. “There is still justice in the world,” she said. In a survey by the Russian state opinion research institute “Vtsiom”, Valiyeva was even named Sportswoman of the Year 2022.
After examining the RUSADA verdict, WADA intends to decide how to proceed. In November, the agency handed the Valiyeva case over to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport CAS due to unreasonable delay – and applied for a four-year ban. The news of the positive test result only became known at the Winter Olympics in Beijing last February, after the then 15-year-old had won Olympic gold with the Russian team ahead of the USA and Japan. A provisional suspension was lifted again, so she was allowed to start in the women’s singles and ended up as the top favorite in fourth place.
The US figure skaters have been waiting for a year to see if they can still celebrate another Olympic victory. The always brash Travis Tygart, executive director of the national anti-doping agency USADA, expects that there will be a “full, fair and public hearing outside of Russia” before the CAS. The world cannot accept this self-interested decision by RUSADA, which was a “key instrument of state-sponsored doping fraud” in Russia.
Russia excluded from EM
At the European Championships in Espoo, near Helsinki, from Wednesday to Saturday, it’s not just Valiewa who will miss the women’s game. Because of the war of aggression against Ukraine, Russia, the number one figure skating nation, is completely excluded. For the German starters, this absence offers a great opportunity to get back into the limelight and even to win medals after years of crisis. “The field in the top positions is completely open,” said Claudia Pfeifer, sports director of the German Skating Union.
The association has high hopes for one or even two medals in pair skating. “A medal is definitely a goal. We know that it’s quite possible,” said Annika Hocke, who was seventh at the 2020 European Championships with her Berlin partner Robert Kunkel. “We know that we shouldn’t insist on that. Then it won’t work.” Most recently, Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot won European Championship silver in 2017.
Secretly, the seven-time German champion Nicole Schott is also speculating that she could climb onto the medal podium. “Since the three Russian girls are not at the European Championships, three places have become vacant. I think that anything can happen,” said the 26-year-old from Essen. This time the level isn’t that far apart: “The Russians could jump four times and lie on their butts three times and would still have been 50 points ahead.”