Back in Moscow | After the tornado, Kamila Valieva begins a long journey

(Yanqing) Caught in a violent storm at only fifteen years old, Russian skater Kamila Valieva failed at the foot of the Olympic podium on Thursday and is now entering a long procedure after her positive doping test for a prohibited substance.

Posted at 12:18 p.m.

Coralie FEBVRE
France Media Agency

What consequences for his victory in the team event of the Beijing Olympics? What is she risking on the merits of the case? Are there doubts about the reality of cheating? And is it only a case of doping?

Pending team podium

The fourth place of the young prodigy on the individual event, where she cracked under the pressure, allows to give their medals on Friday to her three predecessors, including two other Russians.

On the other hand, the suspense remains complete for the team event, won by Valieva and her compatriots before the positive result of her control fell in the middle of the Olympic Games, dating back to December 25 during the Russian Championships.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) refuses to organize the podium ceremony until the case has been decided, an unprecedented decision which penalizes the Americans and the Japanese, respectively second and third.

And even if Valieva ends up being sanctioned, the consequences for her teammates are far from clear: the rules of the International Skating Federation (ISU) only provide for collective disqualification in the event of a positive test by one of the members of the team during the competition – not six weeks before.

Up to two years suspension

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) confirmed on Monday the lifting of the provisional suspension of the young skater, authorizing her to continue her Games, but did not rule on the merits.

It is now up to the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada), at the initiative of the test, to render a disciplinary decision which should take several months, and may be the subject of an appeal before the CAS, or even a final appeal to the Swiss Federal Court.

“Protected person” according to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), because she is under 16, Valieva risks between a simple reprimand and two years of suspension, depending on the seriousness of the fault committed.

If she is suspended, her sports results should be retroactively canceled from December 25 – already her national title, her European title and her Olympic team title.

Accidental contamination?

We will therefore have to wait for the central question to be decided: where does the trimetazidine come from, found in a tiny concentration in his body, a molecule used to relieve angina pectoris and banned by the AMA since 2014, because it would promote blood circulation?

Already, the defense has mentioned a possible “contamination via the cutlery” shared by the Russian teenager and her grandfather, who drives her to training every day and is treated with trimetazidine, after the installation of an artificial heart.

Valieva could have “drank from the same glass” as the old man, according to the hypothesis submitted to the CAS without either party having had time to conduct further expertise.

Sports authorities have already recognized in 2018 two cases of accidental contamination with trimetazidine: that of American swimmer Madisyn Cox, via a food supplement (reduced suspension), and that of Russian bobsledder Nadezhda Sergeeva, suspended during the PyeongChang Olympics and blanched eight months later.

“Protected” or weakened?

The Valieva case immediately raised suspicion around Russia, as its athletes competed in China under a neutral flag due to repeated doping scandals, large-scale cheating and a cover-up involving the secret services.

On the merits, no element recalls for the moment the past cases, but the young age of the skater implies the opening of an investigation into her entourage – already announced by Rusada and the AMA, and envisaged on the basis of the new American anti-doping law.

The investigations should in particular focus on the skater’s doctor, Philip Shvetsky, already suspended by the Russian authorities for having injected seven rowers with intravenous recovery products in 2007 – a method prohibited even if these molecules were authorized.

Beyond the anti-doping aspect, the affair raises broader questions about the champion factory of Eteri Tutberidze, a demanding and icy coach, and the lightning careers of his previous prodigies, between burn outsinjuries and eating disorders.

More generally, the media tornado that Valieva had to face shows that her “protected” status – which should have guaranteed her confidentiality, according to WADA – is of no consequence in the face of the impact of the Olympic Games, raising the question of a minimum age. to participate in the supreme competition of the sporting world.


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