Kamila Valiewa had hardly dried her tears of relief after her successful short program on Monday evening when the next chapter in her doping case was opened. A few hours after her glamorous appearance in the Capital Indoor Stadium from Beijing reported the New York Timesthat three different substances for the treatment of heart problems were discovered in the doping test of the 15-year-old Russian figure skater – in addition to the already known, banned substance trimetazidine, she had hypoxene and L-carnitine in her body. Although these agents are not on the banned list, they still make the case even more enigmatic.
The newspaper referred to a document submitted to the ad hoc court of the Court of Arbitration for Sport at the appeal hearing CAS had been presented. With its decision – regardless of the question of guilt – the chamber had made it possible for Valiyeva to start in the individual competition. There she defied the immense pressure in the short program and, while in the lead, steers towards gold.
hypoxene and L-carnitine
According to the Swiss I.O.CMember Denis Oswald said in the hearing that Valiyeva and her lawyers accidentally got trimetazidine into her body through contamination with one of her grandfather’s medicines. Already in the hearing by the Russian anti-doping authority RUSADA before the CAS-Meeting Valieva’s mother loudly New York Times testified that her daughter had received Hypoxen for cardiac arrhythmia in accordance with the purpose of the medication.
L-carnitine, on the other hand, is a drug that is supposed to strengthen heart muscle function and is administered after heart attacks. The previously widespread assumption that externally supplied L-carnitine has a positive effect on fat burning has now been disproved – but this does not apply to a possible increase in performance. The combination of the three substances appears “aimed at increasing endurance, reducing fatigue and promoting more efficient use of oxygen”said Travis Tygart, chief of the U.S-Anti-Doping Agency USADAthe New York Times.
No comment from WADA and I.O.C
Alberto Salazar, the doctor of the notorious Nike Oregon project, had given his long-distance runners L-carnitine intravenously via infusions – which in turn is forbidden. This is one of the reasons why Salazar initially received a four-year ban in 2019 before being banned for life. It is not yet clear how Valiyeva was administered the substance.
According to the report, the World Anti-Doping Agency, as an opponent of Valiyeva’s case, did not want to comment on the new fact. The International Olympic Committee, which had also taken action against the lifting of Valiyeva’s suspension, emphasized again on Wednesday morning, in the person of spokesman Mark Adams, that it would no longer comment on the Valiyeva case. After all, not even the B sample has been opened.
Legendary duchess cocktail
Combinations of substances have a long tradition in Russian doping history. The “Duchess cocktail” that mastermind Grigory Rodchenkov used to dope Russian athletes ahead of the home games in Sochi in 2014: three anabolic steroids in microdoses, dissolved in whiskey for men and martini for women. Rodchenkov, who is now on hiding in the US, once described the effect of the mixture in an interview with the ARD doping editors: “My cocktail does not turn any athlete into a top athlete. But he can bring the last ounce on the way to a medal.”
The allegations that Valiyeva’s environment has been exposed to since the case became known are aimed at precisely this logic: gifted talent and unbelievable diligence in training are not the end of the road in figure skating, as is so often the case in Russian sport.