Kamila Valieva: Anti-doping Case and Follow-ups

[TallyT]

The Swiss Federal Supreme Court has registered an appeal from Kamila Valieva against her suspension.

Not surprising, what does she have to lose after all?

 

[Amei]

As for delayed medal awarding and reallocation, there’s also the infamous gold medal awarded at the food court of the Atlanta airport. (I fly through ATL regularly. It’s one of those places that’s busy enough that anything really can happen there. Including food court Olympic medal handoffs.)

Maybe an unpopular opinion but if I was getting a delayed medal because of some long drawn out doping case I think I'd prefer a funny story of getting medals at the airport burger joint vs. the run of the mill ceremony years down the line that IMO won't have the shine of had it happened at the actual Games it was earned.

 

[Amei]

Not surprising, what does she have to lose after all?

Does anyone know if she'll be able to train and perform in shows with an official appeal filed?

 

[Diana Delafield]

Maybe an unpopular opinion but if I was getting a delayed medal because of some long drawn out doping case I think I'd prefer a funny story of getting medals at the airport burger joint vs. the run of the mill ceremony years down the line that IMO won't have the shine of had it happened at the actual Games it was earned.

As I think I said earlier in this thread, Jamie Sale admitted even having a second revised medal ceremony at the actual 2002 Games, just days after the controversial first ceremony, didn't give her the same glowing feeling.

 

[el henry]

Every single member of Team USA who has spoken on the subject wants a medal ceremony, whether at Paris, Boston, Milan or wherever. They sure as heck don't want the airport coffee shop. Nothing will ever replicate getting the medal at the original ceremony. But that's not the valid comparison. That will never happen, that was taken from them, that doesn't mean they shouldn't have another ceremony, as the skaters themselves have said they want.

I will go with what the skaters themselves have said.

 

[saine]

Kamila Valieva removed from Russian National Team.

Canadian figure skaters on the Team Event bronze. This gathers what was said from the pre-Worlds media day into one article instead of multiple Twitter posts.

 

[saine]

WADA wants to update the anti-doping rules before 2026 due to the Valieva case.

 

[Skating91]

WADA wants to update the anti-doping rules before 2026 due to the Valieva case.

I think it's for show.

Let's remember the sequence of events and you can google this.

Within days of this being leaked (despite Kamila being a protected person entitled to complete confidentially to protect things such as psychological health of the vulnerable 15 year old), WADA and USADA were already pinning it on the Kamila's entourage despite zero proof. A lot of the time these cases for trace amounts of something like TMZ ends up being simply a case of cross-contamination, but still this did not stop WADA within days of the test result being leaked blaming Kamila's entourage. This is prejudicing a case. It's so unfair and unethical.

Niggli acknowledged "the evidence is not there" to link the coach directly with Valieva's doping case, suggesting "maybe the physio, maybe the doctor" were involved.

Now they are even admitting, we don't have proof at all it's the coach, but maybe it was the doctor or physio. Basically a hunch.

Sorry, but that's not good enough if you're going to slander people.

 

[4everchan]

The evidence is not there because they were not able to investigate properly since they do not have enough powers. That's why they want to redefine things prior to the next games.

 

[Skating91]

The evidence is not there because they were not able to investigate properly since they do not have enough powers. That's why they want to redefine things prior to the next games.

What would there be to investigate in this case? Eteri would say the same things she said to RUSADA. RUSADA are the one's who caught Valieva and provisionally suspended her after all back in 2022.

And WADA have pushed the same narrative that the entourage is to blame since within days of the 15 year old's confidential test result being leaked to the world's press, so it's hard to take WADA seriously when they say they needed more powers to investigate when they had made up their mind and their line of attack within days (if not hours) of the leaked confidential result.

As WADA say, the athlete is 100% responsible for what they put in their body.

If several people at Eteri's school had tested positive for a rare drug with clear performance enhancing properties, I would believe there is something to investigate. However, this was a very cheap, common, readily available, commonly used drug in Russia therefore very many avenues of contamination, and a once off positive test. Plus not a very effective performance enhancer in general. Even a Russian curler got caught up in a TMZ scandal. Do you really believe curler would take a common heart drug to improve performance? Maybe these Russians are much smarter than the rest of the world and can come up with the perfect cocktail to smash all world records with a common heart drug. You have all these people taking designer steroids at great expense when they could have taken something that is 50 cents per pill.

 

[4everchan]

More powers could mean suspending coaches too whenever there is a positive test. And as it is suggested in the article, rest assured her young skaters will be tested and tested over and over when they are readmitted

 

[TallyT]

I doubt that there is much they can do to get at the coach/team/officials who are behind any drug cheating: even if they had full powers here and the political situation allowed them to investigate in Russia, if the athlete basically exonerates them by attributing purely 'home contamination' (for instance a possibly imaginary grandfather, water and strawberries) then... well. Unless athletes are willing to name names, proof is going to be hard to find. And remember, in the sex and abuse scandals, coaches who knew about it have been at best wrist-slapped and more often simply allowed to continue. I'd lay good money on it being the same in the end with this. But hey, I'm all for them trying.

Oh, and from the article... "The court has given no timetable to judge the latest round of appeals." So don't book your tickets to Paris just yet, people.

 

[4everchan]

An automatic 3 month suspension for the coach for the first offense, 6 months for the second one, etc until a life-time ban will never happen but it could be implemented without further inquiries.

This is a two-way deal where an athlete cannot be sacrificed by a coaching team and vice versa.

 

[Minz]

An automatic 3 month suspension for the coach for the first offense, 6 months for the second one, etc until a life-time ban will never happen but it could be implemented without further inquiries.

This is a two-way deal where an athlete cannot be sacrificed by a coaching team and vice versa.

I guess the problem with this is that there are quite a few people who could be considered a coach, and that could be hard to implement. Like if you see someone every few weeks for choreography, are you going to be suspended for 3 months even if you had literally nothing to do with it?

I think the idea is there, but it would be very hard to implement in practice.

 

[4everchan]

I guess the problem with this is that there are quite a few people who could be considered a coach, and that could be hard to implement. Like if you see someone every few weeks for choreography, are you going to be suspended for 3 months even if you had literally nothing to do with it?

I think the idea is there, but it would be very hard to implement in practice.

Every athlete would need to designate a main coach. Simple as that. I don't think David Wilson would be suspended for doing choreo with a skater who gets suspended. There is no need to make this complicated.
The point is this : the main coach, the one responsible for the athlete, gets suspended if their athlete is caught for doping. No need to say that the coach had nothing to do with it because the athlete got their supplements from the physio or some other minor coach.... It doesn't matter what happened. As soon as there is a positive doping test, the main coach gets suspended as well. That means that the main coaches would make sure their athletes play fair, or else they also lose their jobs

 

[icewhite]

The idea to suspend the coach when their athlete has doped is not applicable. No coach would ever take that risk to coach anybody anymore, you cannot and are not supposed to control every inch of your athlete's life - but even more importantly I don't think it's possible from a legal point of view.

 

[4everchan]

The idea to suspend the coach when their athlete has doped is not applicable. No coach would ever take that risk to coach anybody anymore, you cannot and are not supposed to control every inch of your athlete's life - but even more importantly I don't think it's possible from a legal point of view.

Of course. I am hardcore . It implies a real culture change in some countries . I don't think some coaches would be afraid to lose their job as they trust their athletes But I'd like it, especially when athletes are minor.

 

[Minz]

Every athlete would need to designate a main coach. Simple as that. I don't think David Wilson would be suspended for doing choreo with a skater who gets suspended. There is no need to make this complicated.
The point is this : the main coach, the one responsible for the athlete, gets suspended if their athlete is caught for doping. No need to say that the coach had nothing to do with it because the athlete got their supplements from the physio or some other minor coach.... It doesn't matter what happened. As soon as there is a positive doping test, the main coach gets suspended as well. That means that the main coaches would make sure their athletes play fair, or else they also lose their jobs

I get what you're saying, and I know that it's unlikely to be implemented, but I just see a bunch of technical issues with this. Like, for the Valieva case, who says the main coach has to be Eteri? Why can't it be some random dude and then they get suspended instead of the people who actually did anything.

 

[4everchan]

I get what you're saying, and I know that it's unlikely to be implemented, but I just see a bunch of technical issues with this. Like, for the Valieva case, who says the main coach has to be Eteri? Why can't it be some random dude and then they get suspended instead of the people who actually did anything.

ETeri is her coach. The one who gets the praise gets the suspensions

 

[4everchan]

I am ok too if you'd prefer suspending the whole team