you must have missed Brennan calling her a drug cheat in cnn and one male news anchor repeating what's the update of the doped skater.
Kamila Valieva: Anti-doping Case and Follow-ups
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- Jul 9, 2014
I don't disagree. I was actually responding to an earlier post that said the US is the only country where this is a big story. I can't imagine that's the case but, I only have US press and this is still a big deal here.
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- Feb 27, 2014
Lkely best case scenario versus unlikely best case scenario and likely worst case scenario versus unlikely worth case scenario.
Likely best case scenario: KV gets a 6 month suspension immediately pending further investigation. But gets the start again in the fall.
Unlikely best case scenario: KV gets to skate in the Olympics pending further investigation.
Partly due to her being a minor and partly because her sample from December 25th 2021 was supposed to be examined within 10 days and it took 6 weeks and that in a legal sense could taint the sample. I am pretty sure in the court of law in the United States a sample like that would be thrown out.
Likely worst case scenario: No competitions for 12 months pending further investigation.
Unlikely worst case scenario: A 2 year suspension from competition. That would without question ruin her career for something she is not responsible for.
I wish we knew more but my main concern is for Kamilas mental health. Even if a miracle happens and she gets to skate in the lady's competition what can she have left in the tank after being thrown to the wolves world wide?
After the decision on the Olympics has been made and they go on to do further investigations investigations I hope we can look back and think of how this 15 year old minor athlete could have been handled better and better protected as she was supposed to be.
It would also be extra cruel to this 15 year old phenom to practice for 6 or 7 days thinking she may have a chance to skate in the ladies competition only to be told no the day of the SP when she could have been home with her family in Russia for almost a week protected by her parents and loved ones. I hope Kamila can recover.
I also hope we find out what happened all the way around but we may never.
Likely best case scenario: KV gets a 6 month suspension immediately pending further investigation. But gets the start again in the fall.
Unlikely best case scenario: KV gets to skate in the Olympics pending further investigation.
Partly due to her being a minor and partly because her sample from December 25th 2021 was supposed to be examined within 10 days and it took 6 weeks and that in a legal sense could taint the sample. I am pretty sure in the court of law in the United States a sample like that would be thrown out.
Likely worst case scenario: No competitions for 12 months pending further investigation.
Unlikely worst case scenario: A 2 year suspension from competition. That would without question ruin her career for something she is not responsible for.
I wish we knew more but my main concern is for Kamilas mental health. Even if a miracle happens and she gets to skate in the lady's competition what can she have left in the tank after being thrown to the wolves world wide?
After the decision on the Olympics has been made and they go on to do further investigations investigations I hope we can look back and think of how this 15 year old minor athlete could have been handled better and better protected as she was supposed to be.
It would also be extra cruel to this 15 year old phenom to practice for 6 or 7 days thinking she may have a chance to skate in the ladies competition only to be told no the day of the SP when she could have been home with her family in Russia for almost a week protected by her parents and loved ones. I hope Kamila can recover.
I also hope we find out what happened all the way around but we may never.
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- Dec 24, 2014
I think RUSADA did Kamila a disservice by overturning the suspension. Did they really think the IOC and everyone else would just go along with this? She could be home by now being supported by her family, out of the public eye. Obviously missing the Olympics is devastating but this turn of events is so much worse. There is no good outcome at this point.
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2014
All I can say is that I'm glad there's no crowd in the arena. I can only imagine how hard that would be for this young lady.
Mathman, what people are forgetting is the Zero mark, absolutely no doping. If they let this camp and minor get away with this doping allegation, they are opening the door for all minors to be doped and get away with it because they are minors. If they get away with this, with a slap on the hand, it will continue…In Christine Brennan's CNN interview she did not blame the skater but rather the IOC. Her point was that if Russia had been properly punished for abuses in the past, instead of a meaningless slap on the wrist, then the current controversy never would have occurred.
But yeah, she did come off as rather fierce and warmongering.
Well my response was to the article was posted in response to someone saying no one is blaming Valieva with the 'But, look at the front page of the online press from this morning in my area". Valieva is the skater involved, an article providing the timeline of events isn't inappropriate or an attack on her to picture her.
I read on Russian news that it was an independent Disciplinary Committee that overturned the RUSADA provisional suspension. The question is what defence has been put forth for Kamila . Apparently they are stating that there is strong evidence that she somehow ingested a contaminated product that is why the suspension was rapidly overturned.Now ,I assume that senior WADA /ISU/IOC officials must have been privy to the details of the reasoning behind this.So the fact that they all decided to appeal the decision to the CAS must mean they feel the explanations are not strong enough . Otherwise they wouldn’t have taken such a swift step so close to pinnacle event of the Winter Olympics.
I would not take Christine Brennan's tweets or news articles for how most Americans think. Having said that, I agree mainstream US media can be very biased. Most of the people I know here in the US are pretty sympathetic towards Kamila and feel awful that she is going through this. There is no sympathy for her coaching team though, or the Russian Fed. Personally, I feel bad for all the figure skaters who are having their Olympic experience be ruined first by covid, now by this doping scandal.
If you look at the ROC statement in the 1st post of this thread " the Disciplinary Committee of RAA RUSADA canceled the temporary suspension applied to the Athlete." -- That doesn't sound 'independent' to me as its listed as a committee of RUSADA.
I don't think that any country should have the ability to lift a doping suspension from 1 of their own athletes. It should always be deferred to the international governing body of the sport. That's 1 of those procedural things that have come to light due to this situation that really needs to change.
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- Jul 9, 2014
I never take Brennan's comments seriously. For some reason the us seems to respect her opinion. Why, I will never know. Has she ever put on a pair of skates.
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- Jan 28, 2013
If my understanding of the timeline is still accurate, then failing to overturn the suspension would mean that the Team Event results would be invalidated, or at least Kamila's scores would be, and Russia would forfeit the gold. The only way to salvage that gold medal was to make the Valieva drug thing simply go away. So it went away. For the time being.
I think that for North American skaters and fans, the Team Event is just a fun little side dish to the main course. For example, Megan Duhamel recently said her pairs bronze was more important to her than her Team gold. But I'm coming to realize that it's a completely different story in Russia, where winning that gold medal is a point of national pride.
I think that behind the scenes, RUSADA knew that overturning the suspension was a mistake, but they HAD to do it because of pressures back home. I predict that ulimately Kamila will be dismissed from the Olympics and Russia will not win the Team gold medal.... but the Russian sports will be able to say "we did all we could, don't blame us."
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- Jun 11, 2012
I don't care for Brennan's brand of journalism and I don't really pay much attention or put credence into what she says.
BUT....I will weigh in on this issue. I feel very sorry for Kami, very sorry. I feel she's the end product of the "need to win" school of thought, no matter what it takes. I also feel that if she's allowed to skate than it just justifies the doping. She'll win, she'll get a medal, and they'll all go home happy with the exception of some bad press. And it isn't only the US where this story is big. There needs to be consequences and unfortunately a young girl will be impacted who probably only did what she was told to do. That doesn't diminish the fact a rule was broken. The integrity of the Olympics is at stake here which I find bigger than Kami's age and sad situation.
BUT....I will weigh in on this issue. I feel very sorry for Kami, very sorry. I feel she's the end product of the "need to win" school of thought, no matter what it takes. I also feel that if she's allowed to skate than it just justifies the doping. She'll win, she'll get a medal, and they'll all go home happy with the exception of some bad press. And it isn't only the US where this story is big. There needs to be consequences and unfortunately a young girl will be impacted who probably only did what she was told to do. That doesn't diminish the fact a rule was broken. The integrity of the Olympics is at stake here which I find bigger than Kami's age and sad situation.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2022/02/11/sally-jenkins-valieva-anti-doping/
One of the few racional articles
One of the few racional articles
Interesting...
Does anyone know the makeup of the disciplinary panel? RUSADA in their press release said it was "independent" of them but who is it made out of? I assume they're Russians for whom a lot of pressure could have been applied to.
Is it for a fact that WADA/ISU/IOC saw the reasoning of that panel's decision? Something I read elsewhere gave me the belief that they did not read it.
Thing is, if you look at CAS precedent even those cases where CAS agreed TMZ was likely ingested accidentally there were suspensions applied.
Unfortunately, the Olympic Games have turned into the Minotaur Games. Now it is beneficial for the West to question the honesty of Russian athletes (and not only athletes). I believe that Russia should not have performed without an anthem and a flag. I should have slammed the door and not invested in this circus. We do not need such Olympic Games.
Good point, RUSADA gets to say they did everything in their power to protect the gold medal in the Team event. But IMO they have done a major disservice to Valieva because its very likely, unless there is some extremely solid evidence from her defense team, they just delayed the inevitable and has probably made the situation much worse because this has became the story of the Olympics mainly because its not going to get resolved until either the day before or the day of the ladies SP. Had they upheld the ban and sent her home after her appeal it would have been like a 1 day thing in the news, but its dragging - I mean this is the majority of the questions in the IOC daily briefing. Additionally, looking from a big picture situation for Russia, the ban on Russia actually getting to attend events and hold events end in December of this year; if the international panel doesn't agree with RUSADA that Valieva's team presented a solid argument justifying overturning the suspension then this might impact that ban ending in December.
Rusada should have immediately invited CAS and/or the IOC/ISU to the table for the appeal and said we want this to be as transparent as possible that they are doing things appropriately now.
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- Feb 10, 2018
As for Brennan, this is how she "interviewed" Diana:
Gleb was a true hero, I wouldn't have been that patient.
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- Oct 27, 2019
That’s just Brennan being Brennan. I haven’t read her article- no, because I don’t really value what she says. She has her own personal biases at times, but let’s not forget she has been questioning the Russian federations young skaters winning for years now. She has discussed the eating disorders, injuries “conveyor belt” methods….this isn’t new for Brennan at all. And let’s face it—red flag should’ve gone up long ago. Who is protecting these kids??
You also forget that US has freedom of speech and reporters report on what happening. They don’t bury stories to protect any particular nation. Look how they covered the Nancy/Tonya drama. And like it or not, Russia doping a child is HUGE news, and the fact that this news broke AT the biggest event at any athletes career makes it that much more newsworthy.
I’m sure most are torn between what they want to see and what is right. I want to see Kamila skate clean and win the gold, retire at 15 and walk away from all this drama. But Is it right to allow her to skate knowing she has been using a banned substance which gave her an unfair advantage over other athletes?
And yes, it’s heartbreaking for all. For Kamila the young girl that is probably ruined. The fans that are so invested in her and this sport. The athletes that are not using a banned substance and working their butts off to remain competitive. The sport- will people ever take this sport seriously again?
I know that at least the initial organization that filed appeal did it without waiting on the statement from ROC or RUSADA, but we have to remember this is probably a long process that everyone is trying to condense to less than a week. But I do think that once they were able to get the reasoning of the decision if they saw reason to agree with the decision, they could have rescinded their appeal.
Not seen the precedents but even if it was an accidental ingestion, she still took a banned substance. This isn't just about what's 'fair' to the involved athlete but all of the athletes; substances are banned for a reason. And from where I'm sitting it makes sense to keep suspensions/lost medals part of even accidents because it deters people from trying to dope and maneuvering it as being a "accident"
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