A doping case from Absurdistan

There is new news from Absurdistan again, which in itself is not surprising, because everything else would be normal and not absurd. The Russian doping agency (RUSADA) has now actually closed the case of the doped figure skater Kamila Valiyeva after missing all deadlines and has cleared the now 16-year-old of any guilt. A doping violation was at least admitted by Walilejwa, but in the same breath “no guilt or negligence” on the part of the athlete could be admitted.

Of course, no sanctions were imposed, only a result from the Russian championships before the Olympic Games was erased. Anyone who expected a different result still dreams of Russia wanting to integrate into the global community in sport. Bombs on Ukraine distract from our own failures, in history also from atrocities against our own people and of course in sport from an organized fraud machine that is unparalleled and perhaps only equated with the years of systematic doping in the former GDR. Putin demands victories and gets them And Vladimir Putin, Russia's supreme warlord, is always and everywhere involved. He is a sports fan and likes to show off his athletic body, which naturally gradually wears off. Before Sochi, the 2014 Olympic Games, he clearly issued the motto to all his officials and coaches that a flood of Russian medals would ultimately be expected for the investments (we are talking about 33 billion euros). Under all circumstances and however these are made possible. To top it off, holes were even drilled into walls in order to exchange contaminated urine samples for clean ones.

This has long been proven, even if mortar and bricks have closed these craters of lies. Sochi in the winter, like Seoul in the summer of 1988, was an Olympic doping disaster, which was, of course, covered up far too quickly by current political events. Immediately after the closing ceremony in Sochi, Putin annexed Crimea, part of the sovereign state of Ukraine, and again immediately after the Olympic Games, those in Beijing, he began the war against Ukraine. While his bombs cause blood, tears and death, he gathers his athletes around him. His athletes, mind you, are exploited like everyone else in autocratic systems in the past.

Kamila Waliyeva © APA/afp / ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT

It was no different in 1936. Putin uses his proximity to sport for propaganda purposes and the athletes he woos in this way play along. Of course, Kamila Valiyeva is also one of them, although I would like to say in her defense that she is probably too old to recognize the significance of what is happening to her in her country. And I also assume that when she was 15 years old, she didn't go to her trainer and ask for the banned heart medication trimetazidine.

TMZ, as the substance is called in the sports scene, is a so-called metabolism modulator that can increase blood flow and thus endurance. It has been on WADA's banned list since 2014 because it can be misused to enhance performance. So hand on heart in this case: Can a 15 year old know that? Those around her, all of her supervisors, have been given a free pass by the Russian doping agency, which is not surprising. They only did what was desired, namely Sieger produced under all circumstances and bypassing all duties of care that would normally be necessary in this case. In Putin's regime, athletes are like soldiers who are sacrificed for his delusions. And it is also clear that the Russian doping agency is just a fig leaf. Officials continue to work As a result of the Sochi doping scandal and even more so as a result of the attack on Ukraine, Russian sport is now largely isolated, even if there are incomprehensible exceptions, such as in tennis. Russia's influence is still omnipresent. Umar Kremlew, for example, is president of the International Boxing Association (IBA), the world association for Olympic boxing. Incidentally, it is based in Lausanne, where the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is also based. By the way, Kremlev's first official act was to suspend the Ukrainian boxing association. He is considered a close confidante of Putin.

The president of the still existing National Olympic Committee of Russia is the four-time Olympic fencing champion Stanislav Posdnujakov, who is said to be in good contact with IOC President Thomas Bach. Fencing connects. And Alisher Usmanov, an oligarch and one of the richest Russians, remains the mastermind of the International Fencing Federation, even though he has suspended his duties as FIE president following sanctions against his business empire. Seen in this way, the case of the figure skater Kamila Valiyeva is just a momentum in Absurdistan, because the strings continue to be pulled diligently behind the scenes while Ukraine is sinking into rubble and ash due to Russia's constant bombing. Sometimes everything is just sad.

About the author: Sigi Heinrich The multi-award-winning sports journalist (including the German Television Award, the Bavarian Sports Award and the Biathlon Award), book author and TV commentator devotes his column “Sigi's Spitze” to the diverse topics of sport and sometimes poaches outside his field. Sometimes with a smile and a wink, sometimes seriously or deliberately provocative. There should be something for everyone. Heinrich studied sport, was editor of the Süddeutsche Zeitung for ten years and commented on, among other things, 15 Olympic Games for Eurosport.

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A doping case from Absurdistan

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