Kamila Valieva: Anti-doping Case and Follow-ups

[Amei]

It is? How do we watch?

 

[skatedreamer]

Excuse me, I happen to have ADHD thank you, it is NOT a "fake" condition, my parents didn't cause it by failing to parent me and I would not have suddenly been able to concentrate if you tried me to chair and whacked me over the knuckles every time my attention wandered.

I take dexamphetamine, it allows me to concentrate like a "normal" person. It allows me to work to my full ability and not beyond it. Without it I'm extremely scattered and impulsive. I do not get "super-dooper" laser focus with my medication.

It has taken decades for ADHD to be taken seriously and not as some failure of the person with it or their parents. How about not taking us back to the 70s where a good spanking will sort your kid out.

YES!!!

I also have ADHD but wasn't diagnosed until well into adulthood. I can still hear my 1st grade teacher telling my mom "Skatedreamer is very intelligent, but she dawdles. She won't pay attention." Even now with meds (Ritalin), I still struggle with concentration. Without it, I'm scattered (good word, thanks!) and lethargic. The difference is dramatic and very real. ADHD is NOT "fake news."

 

[lariko]

I am interested, but last time the Press Conference had no information, and I am sleepy.

 

[readernick]

But 2 very different drugs, cold medicine vs. heart medicine to treat serious health issues...

First could legitimately be an accident caused by an uninformed doctor, but you don't accidently give a 15 year old heart medication that's known to improve athletic endurance.

 

[Wafflecakes]

I am interested, but last time the Press Conference had no information, and I am sleepy.

Brennan asked the tough questions.

They gave non-answer and deflections.

Nothing else to be gained tonight. I turned it off.

 

[gsk8]

So far:

Christine Brennan in the press conference asked "why she's practicing" as it's a violation and "If ROC keeps the gold medal, what does that say to all the athletes that are working for clean sport?

Mark Adams was the spokesman for the IOC. In short, he said the matter is still being investigated and "that people should be very careful regarding speculation."

 

[Amei]

Brennan asked the tough questions.

They gave non-answer and deflections.

Nothing else to be gained tonight. I turned it off.

Well CBC is reporting that they have officially confirmed she tested positive, so there is that.

 

[gsk8]

Adams was asked who was investigating and the timeline. He answered that matters were referred to ITA" and "CAS" and quickly moved on to another question.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

She tested positive for a banned substance that generally always to my knowledge results in a suspension and/or loss of medals. They can't put too much 'gray area' in the rule book for taking banned substances; there's already credibility problems with these organizations as it is, gray area just allows for further erosion of trust that they don't do backroom deals.

I don't disagree that some action must be taken. I just don't know what that action should be, given that she didn't test positive at Beijing but at an event two months ago, that she's 15 and different rules govern those under 16, etc. If the test was prior to Europeans then that title should be vacated before anything more current, as whatever advantage she got would presumably have helped more back then. I guess we'll see what happens.

 

[alexocfp]

Where did I say they shouldn't be contested.

However, contesting them after being caught breaking them just tells me that you are mad you got caught.... not that you have any actual legit reasoning.

Obviously I am mad I got caught. Because my drug doctor that I pay six figures to wasn’t as airtight as promised.

Now I got to spend 6 figures more to get the A team lawyers on the case to shred Wada and the IOC.

The ridiculousness of the IOC and Wada being the arbiters of clean sport and justice is another matter entirely. These uber corrupt bodies being in charge of athletes careers is like a bad joke.

 

[gsk8]

He won't get into any details. They want to expedite but it's a legal action and can be very "complicated." "We are working as fast as we can."

 

[alexocfp]

That would be the same team doctors who were found guilty of causing harm to DDR athletes?

Bad doctors are found everywhere.

There will be less reason to keep it clandestine if it was legal, I would argue.

 

[gsk8]

Asked if there was a loophole for other athletes, for example gymnasts, are minors given more variants (in order to compete if they test positive for a banned substance)?

Adams said he's not an expert and said the "term" loophole is prejudice.

 

[alexocfp]

Wha????????? Lance Armstrong is not what he once was. His "accomplishments" are no longer that. Doping will always be part of his bio. Who would want that?

Lance Armstrong would. And the people like me that don’t think doping is anything to be ashamed of.

 

[beachmouse]

From Brennan:


So either:

A) We don't actually know what we think we know about the situation.

or

B) There is massive coverup/corruption afoot.

I keep coming back to the 'microdosing' mentioned on Russian social media. From what I've read of track and field scandals, it's actually rather fussy to get right and requires a medical team that knows what they're going. It's not just buying a few bottles of pills from an internet web site. A 15 year old girl doesn't have the technical background to do that and as good as the Russian education system genuinely is at educating citizens in the health and biological sciences, odds are her parents do not have that knowledge either. So I do wonder about B.

Which is frustrating because there are so many Russian athletes like Maria Lasitskene who do want clean Russian sport and to be able to compete under their own flag again and this is exactly the kind of bad press that can set all the work they've done toward that back again.

 

[anonymoose_au]

So apparently at the press conference we were told to refer to the statement from the organisation quoted in these Tweets

This is an utter disaster and I thought RUSADA wasn't allowed to run the testing program and they needed to have outsiders administering and doing the testing.

Like RUSADA were the ones who had were accused of tampering back at Sochi. The only way the ROC athletes had any protections from being accused of cheating was that the doping tests were being done by neutral parties.

But RUSADA was the one who got the positive test and to the surprise of no-one lifted Kamila's ban! They didn't report it immediately to WADA and basically swept it under the rug! They probably didn't even bother to let Kamila know, just her coaching team and RudFed I imagine. Who then stopped giving the drug to Kamila and never even told her what was happening.

That's horrific.

 

[TontoK]

He won't get into any details. They want to expedite but it's a legal action and can be very "complicated." "We are working as fast as we can."

You know, he keeps saying he's "not a lawyer" and "not an expert." And I suppose that's fair.

But you'd think they'd have someone there who was qualified to answer these questions.

 

[readernick]

I don't disagree that some action must be taken. I just don't know what that action should be, given that she didn't test positive at Beijing but at an event two months ago, that she's 15 and different rules govern those under 16, etc. If the test was prior to Europeans then that title should be vacated before anything more current, as whatever advantage she got would presumably have helped more back then. I guess we'll see what happens.

The thing is that any type of advantage will be somewhat long-term . Figure skaters take this so they can practice more, more practice=more reliability, more run-throughs=better competitions. You can't just ban someone for one month.

 

[gsk8]

It is? How do we watch?

I'm not certain. I'm credentialed as I'm covering the event, so have access to the media platform.

 

[Wafflecakes]

Obviously I am mad I got caught. Because my drug doctor that I pay six figures to wasn’t as airtight as promised.

Now I got to spend 6 figures more to get the A team lawyers on the case to shred Wada and the IOC.

The ridiculousness of the IOC and Wada being the arbiters of clean sport and justice is another matter entirely. These uber corrupt bodies being in charge of athletes careers is like a bad joke.

It doesn't matter how silly IOC and WADA are.

Once again. The athletes knew the rules and agreed to them. They must then live by the consequences of that choice.