“Only the coach could give the medicine”
USSR Honorary Coach Tatyana Tarasova described the case of figure skater Kamila Valieva, who was disqualified for four years for doping by the Lausanne Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on January 29.
“Only a coach can give this pill. It cannot be otherwise. How can children get such a pill from a doctor?” – Tarasova said in the TV program “Life and Destiny” dedicated to Valieva on the “Russia 1” channel.
The athlete’s analysis, conducted during the Russian Championship at the end of 2021, showed a positive result for the banned trimetazidine. From the reasoning part of the CAS decision, it was learned that in this analysis they also found an anabolic steroid drug that is not currently on the banned lists but is evaluated by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Documents were also presented showing that the young Russian woman had taken several dozen different medications.
Interestingly, after the CAS decision, the athletic trainer Eteri Tutberidze asked whose fault it was that the banned drug entered Valieva’s body, emphasizing that she in no way determined or controlled the support of the organisms in her wards. pharmacological drugs.
As a result of the CAS decision, Valieva’s suspension began from the moment the banned drug was detected in her test (December 25, 2021), but WADA insisted that the period be counted from the date of the decision.
In addition, all of the athlete’s results were also cancelled. Thus, he lost the gold medals of the national championship and the European championship, as well as the gold medal of the team tournament of the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing. While the results of the team’s Valieva, who won both the short and free programs, were annulled, the Russian team fell from first place to third place in the final protocol. At the same time, Tutberidze’s ward will naturally not receive a bronze award.
Not in the national team, but in the test pool
Following CAS’ decision on March 7, Valieva was removed from the Russian national figure skating team. The athlete is prohibited from participating in any competitions or even taking to the ice for demonstration and training purposes.
At the same time, the 17-year-old figure skater will remain in the doping testing pool despite her disqualification. The International Skating Union (ISU) will review Valieva for the duration of her suspension.
“During the period of suspension, the offending athlete must submit to out-of-competition testing by any anti-doping organization having jurisdiction in the testing area,” RIA Novosti quoted WADA press service as saying. “This is necessary to ensure the overall integrity of the system when the athlete returns to competition.”
“The fact that he is disqualified does not mean that he can agree to whatever he wants,” lawyer Anna Antseliovich told Sport-Express. “She still complies with the anti-doping rules. In case of long-term disqualification, the anti-doping organization includes on its list the athlete closest to the exit. Considering that Kamila has two years of disqualification remaining, it probably makes sense for them to leave her in the testing pool.”
uncertain future
The only option for an athlete to leave the testing pool is to announce the end of his sports career, but it is clear that Valieva is not considering doing this at the moment.
“Of course, I would like to see him in the national team; he is a person with extraordinary talents. Of course, I wish him to return. But it will be the way he manages his life,” Tatyana Tarasova told the TASS agency.
At the same time, despite the general negative attitude towards Valieva outside Russia, not all figure skating experts spoke against the athlete.
“The little girl was in a very bad situation,” said Canadian coach Carol Lane, appearing on the popular podcast The Skating Lesson.
“He was only 15 and he was the only one to blame for everything, which I think is wrong. Apparently there were adults with him. If he was really doping, these people were aware of it and were involved.
In Canada, we cannot even give simple headache pills to students. And we always pay close attention to this list of prohibited drugs.”
Recently, Valieva attended the opening ceremony of the “Future Games” in Kazan and was directly next to Russian President Vladimir Putin; for example, it was considered a planned political action by International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach. .
Valieva also participated as a spectator in the recently held tournament of show programs “Russian Challenge”, which Alexey Yagudin won for the second year in a row. Despite the unofficial status of the competition, Kamila was barred from participating due to the current disqualification.