Kamila Valieva: Anti-doping Case and Follow-ups

[prorussian fan]

Now, I'll be realistic. Tell me a case similar to this where the team or coach has been damaged?
Exactly, RUSFED will know how to protect TT, I'm sorry that the negative image of Kami is everywhere, but Eteri and Co. will not be officially responsible for this.
There is already a reasonable explanation of accidental contamination that RUSADA accepted to lift the suspension and it will be presented to the CAS, they know that they will come out of this scandal well (perhaps sacrificing Kami). Why do you think the team looks so relaxed in practice?
Yes, it is likely that Kami will be suspended for this slip, but although it hurts many in this forum, please be realistic, TT will come out clean from all this scandal and in a few years no one but the fans will remember this episode.

 

[TontoK]

Some of you need to read a bit more about what a protected person means. It's more nuanced than just "protected" person

Yes, I think there's some misconception that "protected person" means "immune from scrutiny or consequence."

Ultimately, the purpose of doping protocols is to protect the field by ensuring that all athletes are clean.

 

[macy]

I say let her compete. Here’s my logic.

- if she’s innocent, a 15 year old was most likely cheated out an Olympic Gold Medal that she won’t win in 4 years. By all accounts, Russia is far too deep to expect her to be in this
position in 4 years to do it.

- if she’s guilty, strip her of the medal later and redistribute the medals if needed. That seems far more fair to me as far as Kami is concerned.

- I also think even if she competes, we won’t see her best and that’s going to stink regardless. All the unnecessary attention is going to rattle her, it already has.


Now, if she’s legitimately guilty, I think we can all agree she wasn’t doing it herself. And if that’s the case, you won’t complete that investigation before the start of the competition anyway. That’s going to take a long time.

What do you mean if she's guilty? It's already been released she tested positive for a banned substance.

 

[Sjs5572]

Trimetazidine has a short half-life so it's perfectly possible to evade a positive result. Athletes only have to specify a specific slot even for out-of-competition testing. With that knowledge and careful dosing they could get around it IMO.

Well this is subject to the rules and I want the decision to be in full accordance with the rules. From what I've read in the Code, within the rules as written it is most justified to allow Kamila to compete. But her RusNats result for sure would be nullified.

I don't think that's true anymore. Serena Williams has spoken about how she was shocked when the testers showed up on her sisters doorstep while she was visiting. It was not Venus who also plays, this was a different sister and she lived in California while Serena lives in Florida. They are ruthless

Testing is much more predictable in figure skating. Skaters are not tested as much as athletes in most other sports, and due to WADA financial difficulties, most testing happens during events. With all of the Eteri skaters using the same doctor, one has to wonder if Kamila's dose was simply mistimed, and other Eteri skaters evaded detection by having their doses well timed.

 

[Amei]

https://english.kyodonews.net/tokyo...on-ban-of-roc-skater-valieva-over-doping.html

The Court of Arbitration for Sport is set to decide within 24 hours whether Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, who failed a doping test at a national meet last December, can continue to compete in the Winter Olympics.

The move comes after the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency on Friday filed a complaint against an earlier decision by RUSADA, Russia's testing agency, to allow Valieva to stay in the games.


The CAS office at the Beijing Olympics is supposed to settle disputes within 24 hours in principle so as to ensure prompt decisions on issues of ongoing participation in the games.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was convinced the case was a misunderstanding.
"We boundlessly and fully support Kamila Valieva and call on everyone to support her," Peskov told reporters on Friday.

RUSADA said there was a delay in receiving results of Valieva's test due to the coronavirus' re-emergence and its impact on the laboratory doing the testing. Her sample was reportedly tested in Stockholm, Sweden.

The short program for female figure skaters is scheduled to be held on Tuesday.

According to the International Testing Agency, the 15-year-old Valieva, who helped the Russian Olympic Committee win figure skating team gold in Beijing, failed the test taken at the Russian national championships on Dec. 25, with her sample coming back positive on Feb. 8.

She was banned by RUSADA but petitioned to have the ban lifted pending an appeal.

Valieva holds the world records for points scored in the short program, free skate and combined total and had been the clear gold medal favorite.

Russian athletes are competing in Beijing under the Russian Olympic Committee banner due to a ban on the national team over allegations of orchestrated doping.

If the gold medal-winning ROC is disqualified from the figure skating team event, the United States would be elevated to gold, Japan to silver and Canada to bronze.

 

[zanadude]

Why does it always take so long to process these drug tests

Is every Russian athlete's test (not just figure skaters) going through this facility in Sweden now?

If so, then I can certainly understand how they'd be very overloaded with work they normally wouldn't need to support.

 

[chuckm]

While I would never assume any Olympic level sport is perfectly clean, my assumption before this week would have been that most cases, were pretty rare and like Maria Sotskova, where diuretics were likely used to help keep the last kilo or two off so they could jump easier.

Diuretics are banned because they are often used to mask other drugs: they help the athlete flush drug traces from the system.

 

[jen84]

What do you mean if she's guilty? It's already been released she tested positive for a banned substance.

I’m saying we, the general public, do not have the facts of the case. Her appeal was accepted and she was reinstated. That reinstatement is being challenged. I’m sure after the CAS hearing, we’ll at least know why her appeal was accepted to begin with regardless of what the CAS does with the case.

 

[readernick]

Is every Russian athlete's test (not just figure skaters) going through this facility in Sweden now?

If so, then I can certainly understand how they'd be very overloaded with work they normally wouldn't need to support.

Yes, but according to the head of USADA, RUSADA could have selected another accredited lab to process the samples if the original lab was backlogged due to additional testing and COVID-19. He said USADA always makes sure to fast-track tests prior to big international events so a situation like this doesn't occur. So, basically, the delay in results is still RUSADA's fault because they didn't fast-track the testing or choose a lab with less backlog.

 

[anonymoose_au]

Maria Sotskova, where diuretics were likely used to help keep the last kilo or two off so they could jump easier.

Maria hadn't competed in months when she tested positive so I'm pretty sure it was to lose weight for her wedding, in fact I think she might have admitted that herself.

The reason it was such a brouhaha is that Maria planned to become a figure skating choreographer, RUSADA banned her for 10 years to show they were serious about doping. Although with what we now know it's more likely she was thrown under the bus because "Hey, she's not competing anymore, we don't really care."

 

[chuckm]

If Kamila is allowed to skate, then doping practices will have won. Whoever gave her the drug will have succeeded in what they set out to do. And you can be sure there will be more cases like this, but with the age limit raised, the skaters will no longer be "protected".

 

[readernick]

Maria hadn't competed in months when she tested positive so I'm pretty sure it was to lose weight for her wedding, in fact I think she might have admitted that herself.

The reason it was such a brouhaha is that Maria planned to become a figure skating choreographer, RUSADA banned her for 10 years to show they were serious about doping. Although with what we now know it's more likely she was thrown under the bus because "Hey, she's not competing anymore, we don't really care."

That was what I thought, too. They wanted to show the were doing something but chose to do it to a skater whose ban wouldn't affect future results in anyway. Also, I believe this happened under the previous head of RUSADA who was trying to clean up Russian sports. He was fired for doing his job too well.

 

[Amei]

Maria hadn't competed in months when she tested positive so I'm pretty sure it was to lose weight for her wedding, in fact I think she might have admitted that herself.

The reason it was such a brouhaha is that Maria planned to become a figure skating choreographer, RUSADA banned her from any involvement with skating for 10 years to show they were serious about doping. Although with what we now know it's more likely she was thrown under the bus because "Hey, she's not competing anymore, we don't really care."

Well the Sotskova case was not just the positive test, she missed several tests before she tested positive and then provided forged medical documents for the banned substance.

 

[4everchan]

I say let her compete. Here’s my logic.

- if she’s innocent, a 15 year old was most likely cheated out an Olympic Gold Medal that she won’t win in 4 years. By all accounts, Russia is far too deep to expect her to be in this
position in 4 years to do it.

- if she’s guilty, strip her of the medal later and redistribute the medals if needed. That seems far more fair to me as far as Kami is concerned.

- I also think even if she competes, we won’t see her best and that’s going to stink regardless. All the unnecessary attention is going to rattle her, it already has.


Now, if she’s legitimately guilty, I think we can all agree she wasn’t doing it herself. And if that’s the case, you won’t complete that investigation before the start of the competition anyway. That’s going to take a long time.

Your logic is fine from one perspective : giving a chance to Kamila.
However, that's not how anti-doping rules work. The rules are not about giving a chance to an athlete in case they get absolution later on. The rules are made to PROTECT (very popular word) ALL the OTHER athletes from unfair competition. This is why, when a positive test comes up, the athlete who wants to appeal the suspension has to prove they did no wrong. In that sense, letting Kamila compete is an offense to all the other athletes. If Kamila were to win, and she most likely could win, the athletes in 2,3 and 4th place would not get a chance to live their true olympic moment, which they may never have a chance to live again, as you have explained, games happening for most women, once in their lifetime.

 

[Amei]

According to Sports.ru (which is quoting Match TV):


https://www.sports.ru/figure-skatin...-projdet-onlajn-reshenie-dolzhny-vynesti.html

The exit panel of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will hold hearings on the removal of the temporary suspension from the Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva in an online format, Match TV reports with reference to CAS.

In December, during the Russian Championship, the athlete passed a positive doping test for the banned drug trimetazidine. On February 8, the Russian Anti-Doping Agency ( RUSADA ) temporarily suspended Valieva, and on February 9 reversed the decision.

The day before, CAS registered the appeals of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to cancel the suspension of Valieva.

The CAS Exit Panel must make a decision within 24 hours after the date of registration of appeals - that is, on February 12 after 22:20 Moscow time.

The composition of the arbitrators appointed to Valieva's case is still unknown. They should be appointed by the head of the CAS field panel, American Michael Lenard.

 

[4everchan]

in a few years no one but the fans will remember this episode.

I am pretty sure that many people still remember Ben Johnson, Lance Armstrong and the Chinese swimmers.

 

[SnowWhite]

I say let her compete. Here’s my logic.

- if she’s innocent, a 15 year old was most likely cheated out an Olympic Gold Medal that she won’t win in 4 years. By all accounts, Russia is far too deep to expect her to be in this
position in 4 years to do it.

- if she’s guilty, strip her of the medal later and redistribute the medals if needed. That seems far more fair to me as far as Kami is concerned.

- I also think even if she competes, we won’t see her best and that’s going to stink regardless. All the unnecessary attention is going to rattle her, it already has.


Now, if she’s legitimately guilty, I think we can all agree she wasn’t doing it herself. And if that’s the case, you won’t complete that investigation before the start of the competition anyway. That’s going to take a long time.

But not as far as all her competitors are concerned.

If they let her compete after a positive doping test, and end up disqualifying her later, it could potentially rob other competitors of their Olympic moment, their proper medal ceremony, etc. And what's more, it puts a huge cloud over the whole event for everyone. That matters as well. It's tough situation, but unless there's really good evidence for her case, I don't see how they can let her compete. I feel terrible for her though. She's a child and whatever happened, I doubt very much it was her fault.

 

[readernick]

I am pretty sure that many people still remember Ben Johnson, Lance Armstrong and the Chinese swimmers.

Hopefully, in this case, they would remember the team who did this to her and not Valieva herself. Valieva should be remembered for all her best qualities. I can't wish the same for her coaches.

 

[anonymoose_au]

How is everyone processing this on a personal level?

With great difficulty...

Full disclosure, I totally believed Lance Armstrong until the very end, he didn't fail tests, he looked us right in the face and said he didn't do it. Commentators like Phil Liggett believed him so I did too.

When the truth came out it was almost a personal betrayal. Like "WTH?! We trusted you! You swore your innocence! How dare you!"

Whenever I think about I feel mad, not only did he play me for a fool, he played my favourite commentator Phil Liggett for a fool too.

What's happening now is bringing up all these feelings again. Especially the realisation that RUSADA is still involved in testing. I have always defended the athletes of ROC on the basis of the belief that testing was done by neutral parties. Now I discover this isn't necessarily true. RUSADA was even allowed to process tests until quite recently.

So now it's like...those awful Tweeters who whenever a Russian is mentioned are like "Oh it's the cheating cheaters, I wonder what they're on?" are they right? Are all my favourite Russian athletes dopers either knowingly or not? Should the entire team have been banned after all?

Like there's no happy ending here...either Kamila's parents did something awful, Team Crystal did something awful and very likely did it to all the skaters in their school or worst of all the Team Doctor of the entire Russian Figure Skating Team did something awful and very likely did it to skaters from various schools and in various disciplines.

And in the end no matter what the case, Kamila suffers the most because the adults around her didn't trust her natural talents. They couldn't have done anything worse.

 

[4everchan]

And in the end no matter what the case, Kamila suffers the most because the adults around her didn't trust her natural talents. They couldn't have done anything worse.

this. How on Earth can adults not trust the unbelievable talents of the children they mentor. I guess, perhaps, they do not trust themselves as mentors.