© AP
Kamila Valieva has been training since RUSADA lifted her provisional suspension (Jeff Roberson/AP) – AP
Attention has focused on Kamila Valieva’s controversial coaching team, as the teenager’s Olympic ambitions hang in the balance.
The 15-year-old returned to practice at the Capital Indoor Arena as, just a few miles away, the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency contested the decision to allow her to compete in the Winter Games.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which has set up a temporary venue in Beijing, is expected to announce its decision “imminently” amid pressure to make a decision before Valieva returns to competition on Tuesday.
“There is the practicality of an event coming up, I really hope this gets resolved as quickly as possible,” International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams said.
“It takes time, but it will be as fast as possible. There will be a resolution of this case, whether the suspension is lifted, before the women’s competition, I’m sure of that.
“We want to see due process and we want to see it as quickly as possible, which is why we have asked the CAS, along with partners, to challenge this.”
Valieva tested positive for the banned substance Trimetazidine, an angina drug on the U.S. Banned Substances List. doping sport since 2014, at the national championships in December, but the anti-doping agency of Russia allowed him to compete.
However, the IOC is keenly aware of the young athlete’s well-being, and is now focusing on her support team, including her mentor, Eteri Tutberidze.
“We have been investigating the environment of athletes for some time, and we welcome investigations into the environment in all cases, where relevant,” confirmed Adams.
IOC President Thomas Bach previously raised concerns that athletes are subject to doping sanctions while their support staff often escape punishment.
“We need zero tolerance for everyone, athletes and equipment,” he said at a conference three years ago.
“By focusing more on the environment, by holding everyone involved in a doping case accountable in a strong and deterrent way, we can take more action toward protecting clean athletes and draining the doping swamp.”
Now is the time to live up to words, as Russia’s anti-doping agency, which declared itself in breach of international standards 14 months ago, has also opened an “investigation”.
“Since the athlete is a minor, we have launched an investigation regarding the figure skater’s team,” RUSADA said in a statement. “The main objective of this investigation is to reveal all the details of possible anti-doping rule violations in the interest of ‘a person in defense’”.
Tutberidze, 47, is considered a national hero in Russia. She received the Order of Honor from Vladimir Putin for coaching a succession of stars, including PyeongChang gold medalist Alina Zagitova. She was also named the International Skating Union Coach of the Year in 2020.
“A very controversial and difficult situation has arisen, there are many questions and very few answers,” he told the Russian media today.
“I understand that there is some action protocol that cannot be dispensed with. We have not abandoned the athlete in any case, we are with our athletes through thick and thin until the end”.
But how one of his skaters came to have a banned substance in her system remains a key question in this shameful story, one in which it’s impossible not to feel overwhelming sadness for Valieva, a young woman who only dreamed of winning at the Olympics. , and madness for the environment that surrounds her.
“As an athlete, you always follow the advice of your trusted people, in this case, she probably followed her coach and her medical team, this wonder girl is not the one to blame here,” commented two-time Olympic champion Katarina Wiit.
“From a very young age they teach you to trust them, they know what is convenient for you and what is not. She learned the quad jumps from her with infinite diligence and courage, no amount of doping would have helped her do them well, and it certainly wouldn’t have helped her artistic charisma.
“Responsible adults should be banned from sport forever. What they knowingly did to him, if true, cannot be surpassed in inhumanity, and it makes my athlete’s heart weep uncontrollably.”
Tutberidze’s training methods are notorious, she demands total control of her skaters’ lives; Valieva opened up regarding her relationship last year.
“Eteri knows how to work always, day and night, seven days a week, 12 months a year. I don’t know any other coach who works that hard, she knows me better than anyone,” she revealed.
“Everything is very simple, she just fanatically loves figure skating. She is a very creative person, she sees exactly what music and image will fit this or that athlete, she lives our programs in every detail.
“It takes three things to be successful in sports: the athlete, the coach, and the parents. I was three years old when I started skating, this has been my life for 12 years. My parents don’t have days off, they don’t have vacations, they have given their lives for this dream. It’s my dream, it’s her dream, and it’s Eteri’s dream too.”
Meanwhile, former World Anti-Doping Agency chief and IOC member Dick Pound has called on Russia to take a “time out” from the Games.
The country has not competed under its own flag since 2014, when widespread state-sponsored doping at the Games they hosted in Sochi was exposed in the explosive McLaren Report.
“At a certain point, if they’re absolutely incorrigible, you end up in the position of the country taking time out,” Pound said.
“We might say that we can help them. They have a problem. We can focus on it. Take time out for one or two, or three Olympics until you get this under control.”
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