Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva tested positive for trimetazidine. Here's what's next for the ROC and other team figure skating medalists.
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I like Valieva; she seems like a sweet and lovely girl. But, cheating is cheating. If the IOC allows her to compete on Tuesday and chooses to maintain the results of the team event, it will spell the end of figure skating as we know it. The Olympics are about fairness; doping — cheating — is not to be tolerated. If Valieva gets away scott-free, with nary a real consequence, then the Olympics will lose all credibility and dissolve into something utterly worthless.
@Dk Adkins Do you all the details? There are also rules and procedures about the actual investigation, however you do seem to know all the answers already.
@Reckless Loser Yeah same. Its her coaches fault not hers. But sadly rules are rules and if they would let her skate it would set a bad example for others. 🙁
@mina vamp i understand. 😭
@Natalya K No. But there is too much suspicious about this situation. Why did it take 6 weeks for these findings to come to light? Too familiar with to previous Russian dopping situations.
así es estimado, las reglas deben ser igual para todos.
I’m sure 15 years old girl didnt come with idea of doping herself – the real problem is her coach Tutberidze, known for such practices. The coach should be banned as she basically drugged an underage girl under her guidances.
Who knows. We’ll see. I hope everything works in favour of Valieva. It’ll be heartbreaking to see the young girl lose after performing well.
If they let her off because of her age then what message would that send? That it’s okay to dope if you’re young?
Good point… because that message is even worse!
Question 1: does every athlete submit a doping sample? Or is it by random selection and it happened to be her turn? Q2: does Valieva have a legit heart condition that warrants the use of TMZ? (This is just a validation question to which we probably know the answer is “No heart condition”.)
Valieva is utterly amazing with her endurance and stamina. She’s a minor who basically does what she’s told by her coaching staff and doctors. She’s been under Eteri for a long time so a child is just conditioned to be told what to do. It makes me wonder if Trusova might be taking TMZ as well as she’s also reeling out the quads. (Probs the other Eteri students as well…) It would be really nice to hear from Medvedeva, Zagitova, or Lipnitskaia. Also, getting provisions, concessions, and waivers from IOC and ITA would just make the entire anti-doping process useless.
I have worked with USADA. Elite level athletes can be randomly tested at any time leading up to competitions, not just the Olympics. The fact that she is less than 16 can work in her favor because she is seen, legally, to lack the full ability to comprehend what goes on around her.
Still, the Russians should be held accountable….and that should mean the medals she participated in stripped. If this is why they have so many children peaking the way they do, leading to early injuries and retirement from sport, it needs to stop.
If you have a medical condition that requires a drug, you have to disclose it. They have a process set up, but the fact that they didn’t reveal it (because IOC didn’t know about it) tells me she doesn’t have a medical condition.
I believe Kamila was framed. Top athletes are tested regularly at random occasions. She was found to have a microdose of TMZ, which has analogues that are not even banned. Someone at the Russian Nationals did this.
@Anna i don’t know about framed. i think she was used, at the very least by people more powerful than she.
Russia is injecting the drug for performance enhancement many years. She doesnt have heart issue. Grinkov who died at age 29 may be the end result…They took the drug n resulted in heart failure later..
She better not compete, that would be so unfair to everyone else!
Is Eteri’s fault she is the one to blame a long time ago, girls that left her team in the past dealed with ED and spinal injuries, this can’t go on!
I think doctors, parents, and other team member also have a role in this also. The blame should not fall solely on Eteri’s shoulders.
Almost everyone who left Eteri and trained with others then returned back to Eteri. For example, Medvedeva, Trusova, Kostornaya.
Eteri can’t force a teenager to take a drug. Not everything is the coach’s fault.
My understanding which may be off, is that the Russian doping agency tested her in December and the results for that test were not revealed until a few days ago, and there’s no explanation yet as to why those test results took so long, possibly some kind of cover job by the Russians? Then the Russian doping agency banned her because they had to, but she appealed the Russian doping agency the same day and had the ban lifted. But the IOC now wants that ban reinstated. So the main 2 questions are why were the results of the test not revealed for 2 months, and why did the Russian doping agency immediately lift her ban.
Your questions are legitimate and should be addressed to Swedish lab, your assumptions about Russian Doping Involvement are absolutely false though.
@Natalya K Hopefully we’ll find out the whole truth soon. I don’t think anyone in the public knows if they were involved or not, unless you have insider information. It’s definitley possible that the Russian Doping agency had nothing to do with the delay of the results. But it’s concerning that they lifted the ban immediately and no one knows why. If there was a reasonable explanation, I’d think they would publicly announce it right away to help clear this all up. But maybe there is an explanation for everything and it’s all one big misunderstanding.
Also it wasn’t 2 months. Even if they tested right on Dec 26, which they probably didn’t, it would amount to a month and 13 days. (the results came in Feb 8) Most likely they didn’t’ work on it until after the New Year. Who knows if they had to ship the samples to Sweden which would’ve taken longer. Also someone mentioned with Covid, the lab probably wasn’t functioning at full capacity.
@Pete The ban has not been lifted, there is a temporary suspension, the reason is announced publicly and mentioned in this video: this is because Russian lawyers filed an appeal. The case is not yet closed, but it will be resolved before February 15th.
@Anna Maybe I misunderstood the situation. My understanding was that as soon as the results were announced she was banned by the Russian doping agency. Then that same day she appealed the ban and the Russian Doping agency then fully lifted it, and it has not been disclosed why they agreed to lift it. So as of now her ban is fully lifted, but the IOC is appealing that and trying to get the ban reinstated.
simple- if she “cheated”, strip the medals. Not fair to other athletes who do this the “right” way
Sure. Simple: if there is no weapons of mass destruction why invade a sovereign country? Simple
So if you’re 18+ and dope you’re banned and have to give the medal away but if you’re 15- nothing will happen? Probably that demon woman faults but still not fair to the athletes that are clean.
She is clean now, the probe had a minute amount which suggests she was not taking this drug on a regular basis and it did happen in December 2021 not during the Olympics. What is really striking is that you need nearly 2 months to actually come up with the results of a test.
Even if she had no choice, she needs to be DQ so that the Russians don’t think it’s ok and then do the same to the next minor they train
They’ll do it anyway they just mask it all countries do
@George Joy It’s true. There is a documentary on how the Russian doping culture in sport.
15 years old.. this perfection and already doped. What does Russia do to its children?
Maybe it did USA ???? 100%!!!!!
China’s Sun Yang and Russia’s Nadezhda Sergeeva also tested positive for trimetazidine and swift action was taken to ban and disqualify them. It wouldn’t be fair if she were allowed to compete considering it’s the same banned substance.
Andreea Raduccan was stripped of her title and medal in Sydney over cold medicine having a banned substance
Russia riding roughshod over international rules, as usual.
So sad for her..
Why did it take so long (Dec to Feb) for the results to be released? Why did RUSADA lift its own temporary suspension?
She should keep her medal as long as the IOC gives Ben Johnson back his and the Olympic title.
It is just politics. Since she tested clean on all other tests including her more recent Olympic test, that one test is not proof. It is not uncommon for test to be a false positive. The solution is to test her today. If negative, that is proof that she is innocent. If positive, then take it from there.
Regardless of if she knew, if it was the coach or some other story, the fact remains an athlete is using performance enhancing drugs, and therefore should not compete.
Come to think of heart failure, Grinkov n Gorveeda couple, isnt it coincident that Grinkov died from the side effect from drug. He died at age 29yr. They won 2 Gold n are legends in figure skating.
In case this is a provocation, and someone deliberately put medicine in her food. Should the athlete or her coach, who are not involved in this situation, be punished?.