Kamila Valieva: Anti-doping Case and Follow-ups

[Scott512]

Send her home. She has worked all her life for this opportunity. She herself did nothing wrong. She in fact is suppose to be protected. This is her dream. She was the favourite. It really appears she will be the scapegoat and the victim here. Maybe she needs to be allowed to skate to say to others you should not be victimized and bullied by a system or federation.

Yes she is in fact supposed to be protected but have we seen any signs of that? If they're 100% sure on banning her from this Olympics and for an indefinite period of time she should have been sent home 3 days ago instead of dragging her to practice every day thinking that she's going to skate in the lady's competition. It's really just mind boggling and she is the victim. I hope it doesn't ruin Kamila.

 

[readernick]

WADA gave Russian athletes plenty of time to clear melidonium out of their system prior to the time it started testing. Eteri herself threw a bit of shade on the athletes who kept taking it after being warned in the interview quoted in this article in 2019: https://www.sportmk.ru/sports/2022/...pomnit-slova-tutberidze-o-meldonii-video.html

So, that claim doesn't hold much water

In the same interview, she mentioned they were searching for something else with the same benefits...I guess they found it

 

[Scott512]

She is the victim but allowing her to skate is not the way to ensure that others won't be victimized. Quite the opposite, in fact. If you don't want others to be victimized, the adults responsible for this must suffer and they must see that doping athletes doesn't reap rewards. Plus, she's not the only victim. All the clean athletes will be victimized if an individual who had training advantage due to an endurance drug is allowed to win an event.

It's a tragedy and despite all the noise here trying to blame the journalist, random dark figures, and WADA, the ones responsible for this are clearly her doctors and coaching them. They caused the tragedy!

But we don't know who gave her this drug and for what reasons and we may never know because Kamilla is a minor. And it was only a trace sample. And a trace sample is not close to being PED strong.

If everything is kept under wraps we don't know how bad the final decision will be. But it probably won't be a final decision there will be an initial ruling and think and then a few months of investigations.

The adults have failed us failed Russian athletes athletes failed sports leadership throughout the world.

 

[iceskater10]

Why do you exclude the option of accidental consumption of the drug, with some product?

This is not a magic pill that dramatically improves your capabilities on the day of the competition. All theoretical constructions justifying that this is a real doping are based on the fact that it is possible to some increase the performance of training. Which obviously means that this substance is doping only in a situation of systematic use over a long distance.

Ergo - if we could determine exactly that was one-time accidental use, for example, with a contaminated product then this whole theater of the absurd must be stopped and forgotten as a terrible dream.

This drug was probably using in training as it allows longer training sessions. They probably thought it was out of her system by the sample.

I feel sorry for Kamila, her team should be held accountable.

 

[bigsisjiejie]

This drug was probably using in training as it allows longer training sessions. They probably thought it was out of her system by the sample.
The TT camp has had a long time history of doping. This time they messed up!!! I feel sorry for Kamila, her team should be held accountable.

I think this is the most likely explanation for the positive sample. And the tip of a very ugly iceberg. There will be more shoes to drop in the coming year, count on it.

 

[vorravorra]

I wish those who wish to discuss Christine Brennan: Virtues and Vices and Water Intake During Training and Competitions would set up some dedicated sidebar threads, so this one can stay on track.

This thread shows that there are some posters out there in deep, deep denial over just how shaky is the legal ground that the ROC is trying to defend. I think come Monday when the CAS decision is handed down, there are going to be some extremely upset posters, which will probably take this thread to about 3000 posts. With the IOC, ISU, and WADA all filing petitions against RUSADA (which in a practical sense if not a legal one, means the ROC), that's some heavy hitters who are going to make some strong arguments for consequences and they will have precedent on their side, as near as I can find. I don't think the CAS can ignore their arguments and wipe them all away just because Valieva is a Protected Athlete.

Assuming the B sample has not yet been analyzed, (or has been analyzed and is also positive), I am now pretty certain that CAS will overturn RUSADA's decision to reinstate Valieva, and will allow for her Provisional Suspension. Based on my (admittedly imperfect) reading of WADA rules, I'm going to guess that the most probable consequences are:
-- Valieva will not compete in the Olympic Women's event.
--She will be given a Suspension dating from date of positive test for 6 months (or end of this season, June 30). This will also keep her from competing at Worlds. I strongly doubt that she will get a suspension that goes into next season.
--The ISU will seek to have her European gold rescinded, and elevate placements 2, 3, 4 (Scherbakova, Trusova, Hendrickx).
--The IOC will disqualify her from the Team Event and remove her points from the Team Total. This will drop ROC team down to 4th place and elevate USA, Japan, Canada. (I don't think IOC will DQ the entire ROC team and I also don't think they will recalculate the detail in every team's points.)
--An investigation, probably with WADA oversight, into Sambo-70 will start.

Except for the first item on the list and possibly the Team Event resolution, not all of the above issues will be quickly settled, and I'm sure each one will end up being argued and then appealed in front of the CAS. The next several months will be busy with the fallout from this, a sad ending to a troubled skating season.

Who I am really angry for is Mark, M/G and S/K. Mark in particular left all of himself on the ice in the team event. And for nothing.

 

[florin]

The TT camp has had a long time history of doping.

What are you talking about??

 

[TontoK]

It's a tragedy and despite all the noise here trying to blame the journalist, random dark figures, and WADA, the ones responsible for this are clearly her doctors and coaching them. They caused the tragedy!

Friend @readernick I've been alerted to some troubling details about this team doctor. If half of it is true, I cannot believe that he would be allowed anywhere near athletes, especially children. I'm trying to find documentation that confirms/disputes, but you're pretty clever and perhaps you could share what you find about this.

 

[beachmouse]

Having no gold medal awarded for an Olympic event is extremely rare. It’s much more likely that the second place team would simply be promoted to first. Unless you also have dirt on the US and Japan that hasn't come to light yet.

Yeah, the IOC continues to reallocate medals in a) the women's 1500M run in London 2012 even though 6 of the top 9 finishers have had doping positives in their careers (four DQed from the event proper including the first two across the line on race day) and weightlifting, where athletes who had been reallocated medals in, say, 2015 would later be stripped of those reallocated medals in 2019 because reanalysis of their sample showed they were doping too.

So precedent is that the IOC would roll team medals down to Germany if need be.

 

[Alex Fedorov]

WADA gave Russian athletes plenty of time to clear melidonium out of their system prior to the time it started testing. Eteri herself threw a bit of shade on the athletes who kept taking it after being warned in the interview quoted in this article in 2019: https://www.sportmk.ru/sports/2022/...pomnit-slova-tutberidze-o-meldonii-video.html

So, that claim doesn't hold much water

In the same interview, she mentioned they were searching for something else with the same benefits...I guess they found it

What Eteri said in 2019 does not matter, because meldonium was banned back in 2015. Her words were the usual statement of an obvious fact - those who take meldonium in 2019 are doing double stupidity.

Theoretically, even in 2015, WADA did give time for the withdrawal of meldonium, but we do not know the testing methods and how long weak traces of the drug can be detected. For example, during tissue analysis, traces of antibiotics were found in me after almost a year and a half - and this was in an ordinary hospital, without using the most advanced equipment.

In addition, as you can see for yourself at least from recent events, our sports are run by not too competent people. Therefore, meldonium could remain in someone's first aid kit for a long time - especially since it was removed from the list of vital drugs only in 2021. WADA could well count on this factor too. But, I repeat, it turned out badly with meldonium. Weak results.

 

[iceskater10]

Yes, in Russia. By the way, meldonium is also freely sold and advertised on TV (sometimes under the name "Mildronat"). In Australia, this is probably not the case, since the clinical efficacy of meldonium and trimetazidine has not been proven. Our doctors believe, as I understand it, that such drugs are something like a placebo (I do not mean sports, but ordinary doctors).

Well then the (Doctor)??? should have know they were on the banned list.

 

[Amei]

I appreciate Brennan is a ig star

And this is why in part I think Valieva should be allowed to skate. She is villainized by the media and public opinion. We have convicted her and the Russians before all the facts. But it seems really hard to believe that Valieva is responsible for the drug i her system.

Well actually the positive doping test convicted Valieva triggering an automatic ban - RUSADA heard her appeal and rescinded the suspension - the responsible agencies disagree with it and are challenging the action of rescinding the ban. And a decent number of the press is not villainizing Valieva, but her coaching team/environment.

 

[readernick]

Friend @readernick I've been alerted to some troubling details about this team doctor. If half of it is true, I cannot believe that he would be allowed anywhere near athletes, especially children. I'm trying to find documentation that confirms/disputes, but you're pretty clever and perhaps you could share what you find about this.

I don't have any additional information beyond what has already been shared. But, he's anathesiologist not a doctor of sports' medicine. Exactly the type of doctor who knows what doses to give so as not to get caught. He's also been involved in two prior doping cases. It seemed fishy prior to this positive test. I would say this test confirms it.

 

[TripleAxelQueens3]

Considering it all, is it possible that all eteri girls have been doping? I highly doubt that only Kamila has been doing it.

 

[anonymoose_au]

It's a tragedy and despite all the noise here trying to blame the journalist

I don't blame Christine for breaking the story, but it is not unreasonable to expect she conduct herself with common decency.

Harrassing and casting aspersions on Diana is not decent, is not in the public interest and adds nothing to this story.

 

[vorravorra]

I read on the forum how a person came to a pharmacy and was able to buy a substance without a prescription. He did it specifically to check.

I want to remind you of Karamzin's classic phrase "In Russia, the strictness of laws is compensated by the non-necessity of their execution"

There are different levels of prscription drugs in Russia, those you really can't get without a prescription (sedatives, antidepressants, neuroleptics etc.) and those where it depends. A heart medication would not likely be found on the "they really are not going to give it to you" list.

 

[bigsisjiejie]

Who I am really angry for is Mark, M/G and S/K. Mark in particular left all of himself on the ice in the team event. And for nothing.

Agreed. The collateral damage of this whole situation is disheartening.

 

[Alex Fedorov]

Well then the (Doctor)??? should have know they were on the banned list.

they should have known, at the very least, that there was no benefit from these drugs. You can build in your imagination any scheme for taking prohibited substances, but it will inevitably turn out to be contradictory. Because, on the one hand, the creators of such a scheme turned out to be so much smarter than WADA with all the testing methods that they ensured a systematic and at the same time traceless violation of the prohibitions, and on the other hand, the same people were so stupid that they fed the athletes, although illegal, but knowingly useless drugs.

 

[iceskater10]

What are you talking about??

Just look at the history!!!

 

[florin]

Just look at the history!!!

What history?