Kamila Valieva: Anti-doping Case and Follow-ups

[flanker]

OMG. That is so freaking disrespectful I can't even. If they don't want to comment, then they don't have to. So rude.

Since they're in America, they may truly have no idea what happened.

ETA: Gleb is a rockstar for looking out for Diana like that.

Agreed. He is a hero of the day. He's still very young but managed the situation with maturity and professionalism. If only adults on both sides could do the same.

 

[flanker]

We can all help by posting on the "Kamilla Valieva support group" thread in the main Edge folder. It is lagging behind -- only 2 pages of responses, compared to 76 for this thread.

Controversy attracts more than compassion since the beginnings of the organized society.

 

[starlight97]

What the hell !?
No idea who that sorry excuse of a woman is but this is disgraceful. They should have walked away and left her standing there mid sentence after the first time Gleb told her they won't comment on this topic.

And I just can't help myself but to add one more thing.
This "Whaaaat she doesn't speak English?? So 0 English?? Can't she even say one word??" bullsh*t is that typical small minded, narrow world view attitude where an anglophone person believes everyone on this planet has to speak their language.
Thinking this is her moment to make herself feel superior and smart when all she actually does is embarrass herself.
They should have asked her if she spoke Russian, or any other language apart from her own simplistic mother tongue for that matter.

Sorry and rant over.

 

[Amei]

And I just can't help myself but to add one more thing.
This "Whaaaat she doesn't speak English?? So 0 English?? Can't she even say one word??" bullsh*t is that typical small minded, narrow world view attitude where an anglophone person believes everyone on this planet has to speak their language.
Thinking this is her moment to make herself feel superior and smart when all she actually does is embarrass herself.
They should have asked her if she spoke Russian, or any other language apart from her own simplistic mother tongue for that matter.

Sorry and rant over.

Well regarding the Diana and English remarks - I call baloney that she doesn't speak it, she not only was born in the US, she was training pre-pandemic in Michigan, and I doubt a reporter like Brennan is unaware of that so it comes off like an attempt to deflect answering and Brennan is a reporter so she attempted to push the subject.

 

[Fanof]

Most people on here are giving Valieva the benefit of the doubt that she didn't intentionally take something.

I am writing here what I wrote yesterday in another thread, since the moderators deleted my post (because it was in the wrong thread... not because of what I wrote...)

Is it a false positive? Maybe but very unlikely.

Is she a victim? Most certainly. It seems to be the likeliest assumption.

But is she innocent? I just don't know. Was she told nothing? Was she told she was given vitamins? Was she told it was ok but she must not say anything to anyone? In fact, I just don't know (and I suppose no one here knows) if she is innocent or a willing victim, and I don't rule anything out. For me she is also one element of the victory-at-all-costs system she grew up in, because I don't think you can become the best female skater ever if you are not ready for all the sacrifices, even if as a teenager you are not fully able to anticipate the consequences of your decisions or are prone to trusting the wrong person.

She must have understood by now she will most certainly not become an Olympic champion - at least not in 2022. Which must be awful, because her world and her dreams have disappeared in a split second. But if she did not know she was doped, she must also have realized that someone not far from her gave her the drug unawares. Which must be much more awful.

Anyway, I am appalled an adult can give a healthy 15yo girl a drug for angina pectoris. It's just disgusting. But that's what high-level sport has always been and will always be... If there was a sack race at the Olympics, some people would dope as well...

 

[Fanof]

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.

I think (or I hope) she will be back in October. So to speak, it will be as if the new age limit had already been in force...

 

[spicymacaron]

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.

Yep, it's everywhere now. My parents aren't fans of sports at all and they say it's everywhere in Chinese media. Same in Japan. Even countries who don't care about the Winter Olympics are reporting about this.

 

[readernick]

Well regarding the Diana and English remarks - I call baloney that she doesn't speak it, she not only was born in the US, she was training pre-pandemic in Michigan, and I doubt a reporter like Brennan is unaware of that so it comes off like an attempt to deflect answering and Brennan is a reporter so she attempted to push the subject.

Yes, it's difficult isn't it. That interview made me uncomfortable. However, it is a journalist job to ask uncomfortable questions, it is a journalist job to push back when people refuse to answer. That's how they expose the truth. Her unwillingness to accept the canned answers is how she exposes scandals. I do wish that these questions were directed towards the coaches and members of RUSADA but I guess they aren't making themselves available to journalists. In this case, despite circumstances that might suggest otherwise, I really don't think Diana speaks English. Her hearing may make language learning difficult.

 

[Fanof]

Wondering if during the hearing she has to answer questions herself. Must be more difficult than a 4Z-4T combo...

 

[Mista Ekko]

Wondering if during the hearing she has to answer questions herself. Must be more difficult than a 4Z-4T combo...

I wanna say that only people that have to be coached to memorise things would have difficulty
in a situation like that, but it probably sucks even if you just sit there and speak the truth.

 

[Ali81]

As for Brennan, this is how she "interviewed" Diana:

Gleb was a true hero, I wouldn't have been that patient.

Brennan is so unnecessarily combative. She is clearly trying to elicit a reaction rather than any substantial investigative reporting.Gutter journalism

 

[DLong]

No, the sports that she lettered in were tennis, field hockey, volleyball, basketball, softball and track (the only sports offered at her high school). She is best known for being a pioneer in advocatinmg for women trying to break into the then all-male club of sports jpurnalism, and has many "firsts" in this field and many honors, awards and appointments to positions of responsibilty. Onbviously she is a tough and uncompromising old bird -- she would have to be to take on this challenge as her life's work.

As for skating, she is one of only two prominent national sports writers -- the other is Phil Hersh -- who always treated figure skating as an actual sport. She does not coddle the pretty darlings but writes about figure skaters the same way that she writes about football players. She wrote two very influential books about the sport in the late 1990s -- The Inside Edge and The Edge of Glory. She is a friend of figure skating but can rub people the wrong way because of her bluntness and strong opinions.

No, she is a nasty person!! She has been doing this for years. Back when Michelle and Tara were competing against each other she was definitely on team Kwan, which is fine to have a favorite, but it was obvious that she didn't like Tara. In her Edge of Glory book one reviewer wrote, "Brennan's clear biases towards certain skaters taint the book somewhat". Which is putting it mildly.
I'm not an Eteri fan, but it's beyond tacky to interview her daughter, trying to extract a statement out of her in such a relentless way. Especially when her daughter is competing at the Olympics.

 

[Fanof]

A question for our fellow members from Russia. IIRC, EM and AZ are in China for the Russian television. Have they commented on the current mess? It would be interesting to know how they, as former insiders, have positioned themselves, not so much as far as KV is concerned, but regarding ET and her club.

 

[millie]

Doping in Russia has a systemic nature. Russia has had 44 Olympian medals stripped for doping violations. The most of any country. In Dec. 2019, Russia was banned for 4 years from all major sports for systematic doping and lying to WADA. We all agree that this young skater is a minor and probably don’t know how this got into her system. Did her parents give them permission! If they let them away with doping this time, it’s just as well for the athletics to give up now or everyone dope…

 

[karina17]

Yep, it's everywhere now. My parents aren't fans of sports at all and they say it's everywhere in Chinese media. Same in Japan. Even countries who don't care about the Winter Olympics are reporting about this.

Seconded, this is huge. This doping scandal made our national newspaper over here (with Kamila's face plastered over it...sigh) and I live in a country which has sent exactly one (1) athlete to the Winter Olympics in its entire history.

Ffs, I've been watching every single figure skating event on ISU's Youtube this whole time without a VPN, that should say enough about how much people usually care about figure skating here.

 

[GGFan]

Well regarding the Diana and English remarks - I call baloney that she doesn't speak it, she not only was born in the US, she was training pre-pandemic in Michigan, and I doubt a reporter like Brennan is unaware of that so it comes off like an attempt to deflect answering and Brennan is a reporter so she attempted to push the subject.

Yes, on the deflection. Old school journalistic instincts say if someone appears to be dishonest you push harder. This is not about manners--they're going for the story which they think is in the public interest. Whether we like Christine or not is beside the point.

I also have to disagree with people casting this through a lens of Russophobia. This would be much worse if it were a US skater. Their parents, coaches, and everyone around them would be harassed. There would be newspeople at the parents house because everything in a child's body here is seen as their responsibility. Believe you me, this is pretty tame by the standards of scandals here. People always talk about Lance Armstrong but forget the backlash after he finally got caught. The baseball players who were caught doping didn't make it into the hall of fame. The Russian part comes into play because they are still serving penalties. That is not Russophobia: those are facts and no one forced Russia to engage in that years long scheme.

 

[bekalc]

I think the fact that is such a young kid is what makes this behind the pale. I hope even in Russia

 

[ice coverage]

Well regarding the Diana and English remarks - I call baloney that she doesn't speak it, she not only was born in the US, she was training pre-pandemic in Michigan, and I doubt a reporter like Brennan is unaware of that so it comes off like an attempt to deflect answering and Brennan is a reporter so she attempted to push the subject.

It is not hard for me to believe Gleb that Diana is not comfortable being interviewed in English.
For one thing, in response to Brennan, Diana ultimately managed to say in English only, "I'm happy."
Diana did not manage to express a more complete thought along the lines of, "I'm happy with how we skated today," or "I'm happy to be at the Olympics."
(Surely Diana did not mean that she is happy that a cloud is hanging over her mother and Valieva.)

For another thing, in my capacity as a volunteer at JGP Lake Placid, I had a brief interaction myself with Diana and Gleb (nothing like an interview at all).
I asked Diana a friendly question in English (a relatively simple question, IMO), but she did not attempt to respond.
IIRC, I tried asking a second time (again with a smile and a friendly tone), and she still did not respond.
Gleb was nearby, and he calmly/politely stepped in to give me the piece of information that I was requesting.
I got the impression that it is their modus operandi for him to speak in English on behalf of the partnership.

 

[skatedreamer]

Controversy attracts more than compassion since the beginnings of the organized society.

Yes, it does, and that's why the support thread needs a lot more posts. To be fair, it's much newer than this one but let's hope it keeps growing.

Just to be clear, my compassion is all for Kami. As for the adults around her....NYET.

 

[draqq]

So there have been claims made that Valieva's tests are clean from before and after the positive sample on December 25. But if it took about 6-7 weeks for the Stockholm lab to get the results of the positive sample, how do we know if any samples taken after December 25 are indeed negative? Wouldn't it take just as long? And on the flipside, if they do have proof of negative test results from samples taken after December 25th, how did those get analyzed so fast compared to the positive sample? EEHHhh... my head is swirly.