Virginie Phulpin 11:29 a.m., February 11, 2022

Like almost everything that has been done best in more than five years in women's skating, Kamila Valieva, who arrived as the arch favorite for Olympic gold in Beijing at only 15 years old, tested positive for doping.

For the sports columnist Virginie Phulpin, it is not the young sportswoman who is to blame.

Kamila Valieva has done well.

The International Anti-Doping Agency confirmed this Friday morning.

The 15-year-old skater won the team competition with Russia earlier this week at the Beijing Winter Olympics.

But for sports columnist Virginie Phulpin, she is not to blame.

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A skating prodigy

"Kamila Valieva is 15! She's so young to be doped... We're talking about a teenager, and that's what hurts the heart the most this morning. After a few days of imbroglio around the case of the skater Russian, so confirmation fell this morning. Like a cleaver on our last illusions. The gold diggers stop at nothing to achieve their ends. They respect nothing, not even the ending childhood of a champion in the making. Kamila Valieva tested positive for trimetazidine in December What is it Basically a medicine for angina pectoris But also a doping product that can help athletes maintain a rhythm higher for longer. Reassuring for the health of someone who hasn't finished growing yet, isn't it?

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Kamila Valieva is a skating prodigy, to the core.

The one who realizes her childhood dreams while still being a child.

The one who achieved in Beijing what no skater had achieved before in the entire history of the Olympic Games: a quadruple jump, during the team competition.

She dazzled observers around the world.

Then we suddenly went from ecstasy to suspicion.

Until the confirmation of the cheat this Friday morning.

But it is not Kamila Valieva who should be blamed, rather those around her, those who organized the doping.

I repeat, she is 15 years old.

And at 15, you are not responsible, you are a victim.

She, her life is already wasted because of vultures ready for anything. 

We see the problem of Russia and doping emerge

Above all, we realize the most total hypocrisy of the punishment inflicted on Russia.

The country has been found guilty of state doping, and is banned from international competitions until the end of the year.

So okay, there is no Russian flag in Beijing, no anthem, not the name of Russia replaced by that of the Russian Olympic Committee.

But the Russian athletes, they are very present.

It is the gold medal of the ridiculous sanction.

So of course, not all the Russian athletes present at the Olympic Games are guilty of doping.

But when a practice has been generalized at the state level, it is difficult to be surprised today.

Again, let's not blame Kamila Valieva.

On the other hand, we can be interested in his coach.

The one who pushes her disciples to the end of the suffering, the one who weighs her skaters every morning by not tolerating the slightest gram of difference.

Some ended up anorexic.

So doping?

No one falls out of their chair this morning.

Kamila Valieva has nothing to do with it.

They smash his dream, his reputation.

And she's only 15."