Beijing 2022 | Kamila Valieva: doubts and controversy over the scandal of the positive of the young Russian figure skater
Russia. Doping. These two words sound pretty bad on their own.
Russia. A case of suspected doping announced in an Olympic Games where the country is already sanctioned for doping. A girl involved.
Can it sound worse?
The revelation that the figure skater of 15 years old Kamila Valieva tested positive of doping before Beijing 2014 has overshadowed the Games, drawing attention away from sport and once again on a dark subject that just won’t go away. ongoing legal case, uncertainty about medals won, and that’s without even considering the broader damage to the credibility of anti-doping measures and the well-being of a young athlete.
So how did we get here and what happens next?
Why are there Russians in the Games? Isn’t your participation supposed to be banned?
In Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022, the Russians were allowed to compete under the banner of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) if they could demonstrate that they were not contaminated by the doping scandal that led to the country being excluded from international sporting events.
An investigation into the revelations that emerged in 2014 discovered that the country had operated a doping program sponsored by the Statestate.
The ROC delegation in Beijing is the third largest at the Games, with 212 athletes .
Valieva was the first skate dora in achieving a quadruple jump in a competition.
Russian athletes have won 12 medals here, but, according to the terms of their participation, they do not listen to their anthem , they do not see their flag raised when they are on the podium and they must not wear any Russian flag on their clothes.
At the Tokyo Games 2020, Russian athletes faced backlash from other competitors that they believed they should not be at that event due to the country’s doping history.
After the revelation on Friday of yet another positive Russian drug test, much of the reaction on social media he raised exactly this point.
First a state-sponsored doping scandal, now a girl
The fact that Valieva is a girl is what makes this positive doping test is particularly shocking.
“Kamila Valieva is a child and child prodigy, whose extremely difficult performances and grace enchanted the whole world, and she has only years. A minor, who depends on adults and is not to blame here”, wrote the double Olympic champion Katarina Witt in an emotional Facebook post.
“It is a shame, and responsible adults should be banned from the sport forever.”
Valieva tested positive for trimetazidine, which is used in the prevention of angina attacks, but is on the prohibited list because it is classified as a cardiac metabolic modulator and has been shown to improves physical efficiency.
Kamila Valieva’s test was positive for trimetazidine, which is used to prevent attacks of angina.
The former deputy director of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Rob Koehler said that there are three organizations to blame for Valieva’s positive result: WADA, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Court of Arbitration Sports Age (CAS).
“By not vetoing Russia for four years, there was no need or desire for a cultural change on the part of the of the Russian authorities. By allowing Russia a free pass, these organizations have severely defrauded all Russian athletes because it is as if nothing had happened,” he said.
“The athletes in Russia deserved a cultural change, they deserved the right to have the opportunity to compete fairly. Instead, WADA, IOC and CAS favored the power and influence of Russian sport over clean sport”.
From “perfect ” to “failed” in the headlines
Valieva arrived in Beijing with the gold bid and quickly made world headlines by becoming the first skater to perform a quadruple jump at an Olympic Games.
Since making her debut last October, the young woman has set a number of scoring world records with highly technical but also aesthetically beautiful routines and was ready to be the star of one of the most dominant countries in the sport.
Valieva’s performance was described by critics as impeccable.
It was presented on the Olympic stage last Monday at the team event with a short program or that he was just shy of his own world record score, and in the free skate the next day he even landed not just one, but two quad jumps.
Commentators rated their performances as “flawless” and they predicted that she would be in many more headlines at these Games.
It was like that, but not the kind they expected.
What happened in the Russian doping scandal?
In 2014, revelations of a doping scandal came to light, eventually leading to a report in 2014 which found that Russia had operated a doping program sponsored by the Estate for four years in the “great majority” of the summer and winter Olympic sports.
Russia denies having a state-sponsored doping program, but has recognized some deficiencies in the implementation of anti-doping rules.
That included the manipulation of the tests at the Sochi Winter Games 2014, where as hosts the Russians ended up in the top of the medal table.
At the Rio Olympics 2016, the Russians competed in a variety of sports, but track and field athletes were banned, while at the Pyeongchang Winter Games 976, athletes with no history of doping were allowed to compete under the name Olympic Athlete of Russia.
In 2019, Russia received from WADA a ban from participating in all major sporting events for four years, after he declared that the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada) did not comply with the rules after having manipulated the laboratory data delivered to the researchers.
That prohibition was later reduced to two years by the CAS and expires in December.
Before Beijing 2022, WADA President Witold Banka warned Russia that it should not assume sanctions would be automatically lifted upon exhaustion the suspension in December and said, “At the end of the year, we will have to say ‘yes, Rusada can deliver.’ It is not the end of this process. It is too early to say definitively that they comply ”.
Russia denies having a state-sponsored doping program, but it has recognized some deficiencies in the implementation of anti-doping rules.
What will happen now?
The immediate problem is what happens to the Valieva case itself, although there should be a resolution on the matter before she competes on 15 February at the event female.
The IOC and the International Skating Union have appealed to the CAS against Rusada’s decision to lift the provisional suspension that had been imposed upon learning of the positive result on Tuesday.
Before Valieva competes again on February, a decision on your case should be made.
Rusada initially suspended Valieva before she appealed the decision.
There is also the matter of medals from the team event of figure skating, which are yet to be delivered. The Russians came first, but the second-placed United States will wonder if they are about to get a gold medal.
The Russian Olympic Committee said it would “take comprehensive measures to protect the rights and interests of the ROC team members and preserve the honestly won Olympic gold medal.”
There are also unanswered questions about why it took so long to get Valieva’s test result: she was tested on 17 of December and the result was only given on February 8, after being processed at a WADA-accredited laboratory in Stockholm.
“It is a catastrophic failure of the system to allow the star of the Games not to have the result of his sample for about five weeks, and then it is reported [el resultado] the day after they won the team event,” US Anti-Doping Agency chief Travis Tygart said.
Beyond these Games, however, there are broader questions that will need to be answered, including what exactly needs to happen to ensure that words “Russia” and “doping” no longer appear in the same sentence.
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