Kamila Valieva: Anti-doping Case and Follow-ups

[beachmouse]

I agree that that the IOC did not really have to give a reason. If they had simply sent out a press release that the medal ceremony was delayed until, say February 13, the assumption would have probably been that they were making a nice gesture to try to see if Vincent could get out of covid jail and attend the festivities.

But instead they deliberately chose to send out a press release talking about legal issues (or whatever the phrasing was) involving a medal-winning athlete on a web site that is effectively a mouthpiece of the IOC and many other sporting governing boards, knowing what would happen once a few people noted the story on Inside the Games.

I think this might have been a last straw for them- they had tried to offer what they saw as a fair (and what many others called overly generous) rehabilitation pathway for the Russian Olympic movement and instead get a positive doping result from the athlete who everyone expected to be the biggest non-Chinese female face of the Games and well, the 21st century version of the IOC turns out to have some limits to their patience.

 

[fabienne1996]

well the national teams doctor has a known doping past and has already been banned once for giving athletes something he should not have given them.

https://twitter.com/_epigraphs/status/1492218319784460291?t=_s5LMs9Qt-PYuecLlYMSPQ&s=19

 

[norwegianfairytale]

I find it so strange that an European Laboratory needs almost 6 weeks to conduct a doping test, not even on my third world country does a medical exam takes so long to get its results.

It just takes a look at Swedens corona strategy. They have taken pretty light on the covid situation since the beginning of pandemic and eventually it has it consequences with not only being short staffed because of new covid infections, but health workers have been quitting or on a sick leave because of long covid, burn out and traumas. They might have been severely short staffed already before the Omicron wave. In Norway lab workers have been working overtime for a long time, and when Omicron hit the work load exploded because how fast it spread. Now they recommend people here to not take a following PCR-test if you have a positive rapid test, because they don´t have the capacity anymore. Just stay home, isolate and self-report and tell your close contacts. PCR-test are for those who need it for paperworks reason. Now they are about to drop the isolation time because the staff shortness is in every sector so to speak. They already cut it down to 4 days recently, and now they want to legally remove the isolation time so that workers who don´t feel sick can go to work because there are simply too many staying home with todays rules.

Jontor mentioned before that there have been particular short staffed in Stockholm recently because of new isolation rules. I think the health situation is particular bad in Stockholm, I just read an article a few hours ago that the corridors in Stockholm hospitals are flooded with ER patiens and some of them are actually lying on the floor, and chief physicians are running from place to place trying to put out the fire.

Covid challenged and changed the situation for modern Western hospitals as well, and yes it may seem easy to put the blame on covid in this situation, but I buy the story because I know how the situation is in Norway with omicron all over the place and basically everybody has covid now or know someone who does. And I don´t think this is unique for Sweden or Norway but it´s all over the world for those who have decided to lift restrictions on top of the Omicron wave. Also please know that health system in Norway and Sweden? are already pushed to their limits before covid with capacity. In Norway at least they have built down the ICU beds the last year to save money, if I remember correctly Norway, Denmark and Sweden has one of the lowest ICU bed capacity in Europe. There is no extra or something to spare in the health care system, so we are extremely vulnerable when the system get´s challenged with a pandemic like this.

 

[karina17]

Would you please let us know where these pictures can be viewed? Thanks!

Here:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CZ05986o9HJ/?utm_medium=copy_link

https://www.instagram.com/p/CZ1HZXjsOr0/?utm_medium=copy_link

 

[Erin9]

I have been an avid figure skating fan since the 1976 Olympics and after reading 43 pages of comments, all I know for sure is that any interest I had in watching the ladies event has evaporated.

I know what you mean. No matter what happens, it won’t be the competition it should have been. It’s just sad.

 

[Amei]

But while I was for the changes in the free, you can say this about every discipline, it was not just Kamila.

Well the point of mentioning the Shcherbakova swap is that if they DQ Valieva's contribution to the Team event it bounces Russia off the podium, if they swapped the girls between SP and FS, it would only knock Russia to second place.

 

[norwegianfairytale]

I agree that that the IOC did not really have to give a reason. If they had simply sent out a press release that the medal ceremony was delayed until, say February 13, the assumption would have probably been that they were making a nice gesture to try to see if Vincent could get out of covid jail and attend the festivities.

But instead they deliberately chose to send out a press release talking about legal issues (or whatever the phrasing was) involving a medal-winning athlete on a web site that is effectively a mouthpiece of the IOC and many other sporting governing boards, knowing what would happen once a few people noted the story on Inside the Games.

I think this might have been a last straw for them- they had tried to offer what they saw as a fair (and what many others called overly generous) rehabilitation pathway for the Russian Olympic movement and instead get a positive doping result from the athlete who everyone expected to be the biggest non-Chinese female face of the Games and well, the 21st century version of the IOC turns out to have some limits to their patience.

From my understanding there is paragraph that says they are obligated to inform about cases like this (doping) immediately. It was mentioned earlier in this thread.

 

[mrrice]

90% chance that the medal will be stripped, 10% that they keep it.
At this point that is the least relevant, everything is already chaos.
Give the medal to USA, let them be happy thinking they are the best figure skaters in the world, let Russia be excluded from all ISU competitions so that other countries have chances to win. USA and everyone happy, so there is no longer an increase in the age limit. Levito at 15 is world champion and no one complains that a girl takes the world and Olympic titles.

I'm not sure where you're going here. The US is not the only country who would be effected by this issue. I'm more concerned for the skaters from Russia who were left at home so that Kamila could compete here. Liza is the top of that list. She's been Russian, European, and World Champion. She stated that her final dream was to be an Olympian and that might have happened if Kamila had been caught sooner. The US has nothing to do with how I feel about this horrible situation.

 

[skated011]

I'm not sure where you're going here. The US is not the only country who would be effected by this issue. I'm more concerned for the skaters from Russia who were left at home so that Kamila could compete here. Liza is the top of that list. She's been Russian, European, and World Champion. She stated that her final dream was to be an Olympian and that might have happened if Kamila had been caught sooner. The US has nothing to do with how I feel about this horrible situation.

Liza supports Kamila didn't you see her latest picture and post

 

[Amei]

I agree that that the IOC did not really have to give a reason. If they had simply sent out a press release that the medal ceremony was delayed until, say February 13, the assumption would have probably been that they were making a nice gesture to try to see if Vincent could get out of covid jail and attend the festivities.

But instead they deliberately chose to send out a press release talking about legal issues (or whatever the phrasing was) involving a medal-winning athlete on a web site that is effectively a mouthpiece of the IOC and many other sporting governing boards, knowing what would happen once a few people noted the story on Inside the Games.

I think this might have been a last straw for them- they had tried to offer what they saw as a fair (and what many others called overly generous) rehabilitation pathway for the Russian Olympic movement and instead get a positive doping result from the athlete who everyone expected to be the biggest non-Chinese female face of the Games and well, the 21st century version of the IOC turns out to have some limits to their patience.

The sticky situation is that athletes must leave Beijing within 48 hours of their last event, so habitual skating would have sent out red flags. Additionally some other posts have alluded to a requirement to disclose a positive doping test

 

[mrrice]

Liza supports Kamila didn't you see her latest picture and post

I did not but, I'm glad to know that she stands with her teammate. I hope the entire Russian Team stands with Kamila at this time. I simply can't blame a 14 year old girl for this issue. It's been around for years and she is hardly the first to face this kind of pressure. I wish things were different but, even today, Kamila is the only face attached to this scandal. There are more headlines today. I agree with the headline. "She's A Child" https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/wi...r-banned-substance/ar-AATKon3?ocid=uxbndlbing

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

Here's another:

US Men's Relay Team Stripped of 2012 Silver Medal Due to Tyson Gay Doping Case

The United States men's 4x100 relay team from the 2012 Summer Games in London was stripped of its silver medal in the wake of Tyson Gay's doping case...

bleacherreport.com

In both of the past two Winter Olympics, Russian/OAR/ROC were stripped of medals because their teammates doped.

In 2018, Anastasia Bryzgalova's bronze medal was rescinded, after her partner Krushelnitskiy tested positive for meldonium.

In 2014, the four-man bobsleigh team had their medals stripped (actually the both Russian 4-men teams were DQed and the Polish team too). Also, all of the Russian men and women's biathlon relay teams were stripped off medals when each had 1 athlete get caught for doping.

In this list you can see the event that a medal was stripped and in the first column parentheses which athlete(s) was the reason. That Summer 2012 Olympics was absolutely nuts. As I pointed out earlier, since 2002, Russia has been stripped in 8 out of the past 10 Olympics, a whopping 43 medals in total.

List of stripped Olympic medals - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[chuckm]

90% chance that the medal will be stripped, 10% that they keep it.
At this point that is the least relevant, everything is already chaos.
Give the medal to USA, let them be happy thinking they are the best figure skaters in the world, let Russia be excluded from all ISU competitions so that other countries have chances to win. USA and everyone happy, so there is no longer an increase in the age limit. Levito at 15 is world champion and no one complains that a girl takes the world and Olympic titles.

Levito cannot compete at Worlds because she is too young (14). She won't turn 15 until next month, when to be eligible for 2022 Worlds, she would have had to be 15 by July 1, 2021.

 

[flanker]

Well the point of mentioning the Shcherbakova swap is that if they DQ Valieva's contribution to the Team event it bounces Russia off the podium, if they swapped the girls between SP and FS, it would only knock Russia to second place.

I understand the point but in case they had no reason to worry this was not a question.

 

[bigsisjiejie]

The sticky situation is that athletes must leave Beijing within 48 hours of their last event, so habitual skating would have sent out red flags. Additionally some other posts have alluded to a requirement to disclose a positive doping test

Athletes don't have to leave Beijing if they intend to participate in the Closing Ceremony, but they can't leave the Olympic bubble. So there wouldn't necessarily be any red flags around an athlete that finished competition and was seen to hang around.

 

[beachmouse]

Athletes don't have to leave Beijing if they intend to participate in the Closing Ceremony, but they can't leave the Olympic bubble. So there wouldn't necessarily be any red flags around an athlete that finished competition and was seen to hang around.

Isn't there also the gala after competition is complete?

 

[bigsisjiejie]

Isn't there also the gala after competition is complete?

Yes, there is, on Feb 20, same day as Closing Ceremony. That would be another reason for individual competitors to stay in Beijing.

By the way, the leave-Beijing-48-hours-after-finishing-competition is NOT a requirement, it is only a "recommendation" by the Beijing Olympic Committee and there seems to be no enforcement mechanism.

 

[Tulips]

Isn't there also the gala after competition is complete?

There is. It’s on the last day. If all skaters had to leave with 48 hours of their event, there would be no skaters in the gala.

 

[Oreo]

I find it so strange that an European Laboratory needs almost 6 weeks to conduct a doping test, not even on my third world country does a medical exam takes so long to get its results.

Has it been confirmed when the Swedish laboratory received the test? A guess on my part, but it could be the test wasn't sent out right away or was delayed somehow.

 

[Amei]

There is. It’s on the last day. If all skaters had to leave with 48 hours of their event, there would be no skaters in the gala.

Not everyone involved potentially with the team medal ceremony is going to be invited to the gala and you could have athletes request exemption or accept the penalty for not performing in the gala... this isn't your typical Olympics, athletes are confined to the village, daily testing and less than desirable quarantine measures.