Doped to the gold medal

Our columnist, Eurosport commentator Sigi Heinrich, nevertheless defends Valieva because he suspects that she is helplessly exposed to an environment that is mercilessly geared for success.

The night was short for Jeffrey Benz from the USA, Vesna Berkant Rakocevic from Slovenia and Italian contract lawyer Fabio Iudica, who presided. The hearing of the ad hoc panel of the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in the case of the Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, who was convicted of doping, lasted around seven hours and was connected via video. The decision was made around two in the morning. The so-called “wunderkind”, the overwhelming gold favorite in the women’s decision, which begins on Tuesday with the short program, is allowed to start.

To make this clear again right from the start: the decision of the three members of the CAS was not about the doping question itself, but solely about the fact whether the provisional ban for Valieva should be reinstated. This ban was initially imposed by the Russian doping agency RUSADA, but its disciplinary commission lifted it a day later following an objection from Valieva. The doping sample of the Russian ice star was tested in Stockholm, but the result was only announced on February 8th, one day after the end of the team competition, in which Valieva contributed to her team's gold medal with two fantastic performances. By the way, the doping test was taken on December 25, 2021 as part of the Russian championships in St. Petersburg. Russia's prehistory It's all complicated and I suspect that there will be a big outcry, which shouldn't come as a surprise. On the one hand, Russia is still starting “under observation”. This means that the national anthem may not be played at award ceremonies and the performance may only take place under the auspices of the Russian Olympic Committee. These are still the aftermath of the monstrous Sochi doping scandal in 2014, when the hosts knowingly swapped doping samples and fooled the sports world. The destruction of evidence and the barely noticeable concession in dealing with the scandal, which was uncovered by whistleblowers who still have to shy away from publicity today, led to a four-year ban for manipulating doping data. Many saw it as a scandal that this was then shortened to two years by the World Doping Agency WADA, even though Russia is officially excluded from the games in Tokyo and Beijing.

If you interpret it rigorously, perhaps the Russian athletes should be allowed to participate with their exemption, but essentially only out of competition. Nevertheless, they win gold and are ranked below ROC (Russian Olympic Committee) in the medal table. If you don't understand that, that's okay, because it's inconsistency can't be beaten and shows once again how little power the institutions have in the fight against doping, whereby they repeatedly stand in their own way through questionable decisions.

The decision in favor of Valieva was made because they did not want to deprive her of the chance to become an Olympic champion if she were to be acquitted later, after the Games. That is honorable, but unfortunately also the wrong approach. Allowing an athlete who has been proven to have been doped to compete is a license for possible imitators, especially since not all cases of the fraudulent successes in Sochi 2014 have yet been investigated. However, there is also one aspect of the Valieva case that is still not given enough focus: the athlete herself, as far as I am leaning out of the window, never consciously took the heart drug trimetazidine, which is on the doping list and which causes increased blood circulation and states of exhaustion can delay. It is rarely used in the medical field anymore. It is apparently still relevant as a performance-enhancing drug, although it has been on the doping list since 2014. What can Valieva do about it? At this point I want, yes I have to, stand up for Kamila Valieva. She is 15 years old. Fifteen. She doesn't go to a pharmacy and say that she needs this drug because she ultimately wants to become an Olympic champion. She is looked after around the clock by trainers, doctors and physiotherapists. And there are statements from former athletes who are now competing for other countries and who clearly document that taking pills is part of their daily routine. It is strongly reminiscent of the state-controlled system of the former GDR. The only people who suffer were and are the active ones, whose health would be put at risk as well as their career if they were to be convicted.

In Valieva's case, too, after the Olympic Games it is not enough to concentrate on the figure skater's positive doping test. Her surroundings must be closely examined by a neutral body, because what is happening in this case is a crime. And one more thing about an underage athlete who needs to be protected from the machinations of a seemingly unscrupulous power apparatus that values success above all else.

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Doped to the gold medal

The case of Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva is making waves. Despite a recently proven positive doping test, she is also allowed to contest the women's individual competition after the team competition.

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