Beijing (AP) – In the case of the Russian Olympic champion Kamila Valiewa, US doping hunter Travis Tygart sees serious omissions.
The delays in the analysis of the figure skater’s doping test in December “should never have happened,” said the head of the American anti-doping agency Usada on “Yahoo Sports”. According to the Russian anti-doping agency Rusada, the positive result for the banned heart drug trimetazidine was only transmitted by the Stockholm test laboratory on February 7, i.e. shortly after the Olympic team competition. This was “inexcusable” and a “catastrophic failure of the system,” railed Tygart.
Rusada cited the current corona situation and sick laboratory staff as reasons for the delay in evaluating the test. He doesn’t think so for a second, Tygart assured. “Send it to another lab if something like that happens,” added the doping investigator, who once convicted cycling star Lance Armstrong.
Normally, anti-doping authorities would even speed up such test evaluations before major competitions in order to prevent scenarios like the one at the Winter Games. Because of the Valiyeva doping case, it is unclear whether the Russian team will be allowed to keep the team gold and whether the top favorite will be allowed to start in the women’s singles.
Rusada lifted the provisional ban imposed on the 15-year-old figure skater on February 8 a day later after an objection by Valiyeva. The International Testing Agency appealed against this on behalf of the International Olympic Committee. The World Anti-Doping Agency is also taking action against the Rusada decision. The International Sports Court Cas now wants to make a judgment in an urgent procedure.