Miraculously, the authors claimed in their paper that the method was legal. It leads to a feeling of flying, joy and relaxation, increases blood testosterone levels and concentration. One thing is clear: a doping effect. Shvetskyi and colleagues wanted to push athletes beyond their limits with the use of gas. And again top secret. In 2016, the method was scientifically recognized and published in Russia.
Alone: Already in 2014 the ARD reported on the use of the noble gas xenon on hundreds of Russian athletes from a wide range of sports. The method, said Cologne University Professor Mario Thevis from the Institute for Biochemistry at the Sports University at the time, “the production of erythropoietin has been increased by a factor of 1.6 to 160 percent within 24 hours”. The result: a few months after the ARD report, xenon gas was included in the banned list WADA set. An application to athletes thus fulfilled the definition of doping.
Doping allegations against coach Tutberidze: “Of course they do“
The Russian figure skaters have been under the command of success-obsessed coach Eteri Tutberidze for years. From the close environment of Russian figure skating, the sports show learned that pill boxes, allegedly with vitamin preparations, were available at training camps under their direction. However, the athletes were not told exactly which means these were.
Tutberidze wants, it is said, that the runners weigh as little as possible. One athlete reports that the trainer even stopped her from drinking water in order to maintain the weight. Longer than the list of world-class figure skaters trained by the merciless grinder Tutberidze is only that of athletes who let them jump over the blade with physical or mental damage: Olympic champion Julia Lipnitskaya (15), anorexia, Olympic silver medalist Yevgenia Medvedeva (18 ), broken back, world champion Anna Scherbakowa (16), breathing problems, Junior World Championships second Daria Usakheva (13), fall injury, Junior Grand Prix third Alena Kanisheva (13), back injury, winner of the Youth Olympic Games Polina Zurskaja (14) , listlessness, Junior Grand Prix winner Daria Panenkowa (14), lack of motivation.
The young Anastasia Schabakowa also trained under Eteri Tutberidze. In 2019, she reported on Instagram: “Take a lot of doping, then you will consistently perform. That’s how it is.” And about a training center of Tutberidze in Moscow, she noted: “Of course they do.“Schabakowa then got massive pressure, suddenly withdrew her statements and became persona non grata in Russian figure skating – until she left the country. In Beijing she is now competing for Ukraine.
The process of her former compatriot Valiewa holds for that I.O.C now a double irony: while the committee focused its sole attention on collecting as much money as possible with the staging and production of beautiful glossy pictures at the Olympics, one of the most important decisions of the games is now being made behind closed doors. And it affects an athlete who might not have started at all if she had I.O.C imposed a serious sanction after the Russian state’s systematic attack on the integrity of the Olympic competitions at the Sochi 2014 Games.