Beijing (AP) – The doping scandal involving figure skating prodigy Kamila Valiewa is becoming a delicate case for the Olympic summary court and is bringing Russia’s sport into disrepute again.
The International Olympic Committee does not want to accept the lifting of a provisional ban on the 15-year-old and wants to avoid a stalemate. It urges swift clarification to avert damage from the Beijing Games.
On behalf of the IOC, the International Testing Agency (Ita) as well as the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) appealed the matter. “We want to speed this up as much as possible,” said IOC spokesman Mark Adams. Now it’s the turn of the International Court of Arbitration for Sports. The Cas confirmed receipt of the objection, but could not yet give a date for the decision.
The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) does not consider this approach to be legal. “The doping control of an athlete who tests positive does not apply to the period of the Olympic Games,” the ROC said in a statement. Valiewa’s doping tests at the European Championships in January and at the Beijing Games were negative. You will fight for “the honestly won Olympic gold medal”. However, because of state doping in previous years, Russia has been in the dark for years.
After days of excitement and conjecture, Ita not only reacted with a detailed description of the cause. She was also forced to publicly name the minor Valiyeva, despite her status as a “protected person”.
Tested positive for heart medication
According to Ita, she tested positive for the banned heart drug trimetazidine on December 25, 2021 at the national championships in St. Petersburg. The Russian anti-doping agency Rusada allegedly only received the finding on February 8th, i.e. after the team competition. She cited the current corona situation and sick laboratory staff as reasons for the delay. Rusada also stated that it had also initiated an investigation into other people close to the athlete because she was a minor.
When the Rusda received the test, gold had already been awarded to Valiyeva and Co. in the Olympic team competition. Only then was she provisionally suspended. A day later, the Rusada Disciplinary Committee lifted the suspension again after Valiyewa objected and initially cleared the way for another Olympic start. In order not to affect the women’s singles and to prevent a conceivable later withdrawal of a medal, the IOC wants the case to be clarified by the Cas before the start of the short program on February 15.
Adams: “Not helpful for the games”
“These cases are not helpful for the games,” admitted Adams. “Legal cases can be very difficult, but it’s very important that people get full justice.”
Irrespective of this, European Champion Kamila Valiewa also practiced her jumps on Friday in the Capital Indoor Stadium in front of Eteri Tutberidze. The strict Moscow trainer has built a group of quadruple jumpers that is unique in the world, which also includes world champion Anna Scherbakova and World Championship bronze medalist Alexandra Trusova. If the doping case should be sanctioned, the question arises in the case of a 15-year-old about the participation of the athletes.
“Kamila learned her quadruple jumps with endless diligence and courage. Doping doesn’t help!” Wrote figure skating icon Katarina Witt on Facebook. “If anything, the adults responsible should be banned from sport forever.” What Valiewa might have been expected to do was “cannot be beaten in terms of inhumanity and makes my sportsman’s heart weep.”
Trimetazidine, banned in sports since 2014, is used to treat angina pectoris. Sven Authorsen, Olympic doctor for German figure skaters, does not consider a performance-enhancing effect in his sport to be unreasonable. “If you wanted to do something with it, then it would be to bridge a moment when the muscles are acidic, which can happen in the second half of a freestyle,” explained the orthopaedist. “If the blood vessels are dilated, it would help.” For expert Fritz Sörgel, it is “the most spectacular doping case in recent years,” as the Nuremberg pharmacologist told the newspapers of the Funke media group.
Kremlin encourages Valiyeva
The Kremlin in Moscow gave courage and support to the ice skating “talent of the century”. “Kamila, don’t hide your face, go everywhere proud,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to Russian agencies. There may be a “misunderstanding” about the doping allegations. That needs to be clarified.
For ROC President Stanislav Pozdnyakov, the actions in Beijing raise “serious questions”. There was more than a month between taking the sample from Valiyeva on December 25, 2021 in St. Petersburg and February 8, when it was evaluated abroad.
“According to the international standards for the Wada laboratories, there is a period of 20 days from the moment of collection until the evaluation,” Pozdnyakov told the Russian news agency Ria Novosti. “It’s strange that the rehearsal from St. Petersburg to Stockholm took practically a month.” He thinks it’s possible that someone held back the rehearsal until the end of the team competition.
The Russian Figure Skating Federation has no doubts about Valiyeva’s “honesty and purity”. Nevertheless, the doping case in the country’s king sport triggered a “shock like an electric shock”, as was heard on the morning programs of Russian state television.
Russian athletes in focus
Russia’s athletes have not only been under scrutiny since the Valiyeva case in Beijing. The country is under lockdown for organized manipulation and the cover-up of sports fraud, as it was at the Tokyo Summer Games. The Russian athletes may only compete as representatives of the ROC. The Russian anthem may not be played and the flag may not be hoisted at award ceremonies.
The country may face even more trouble. A confidential paper from the World Anti-Doping Agency from October last year, which is available to ARD, is said to show that more than 500 cases of suspected doping by Russian athletes related to the state doping scandal and its consequences are still unsolved . According to ARD, a total of 50 cases came from winter sports. It is unclear whether Russian Beijing starters are affected.