The affair surrounding 15-year-old figure skater Kamila Valiyeva is making waves in Russia.

Your positive test for the heart drug trimetazidine, which is banned in sport on December 25, 2021, only became known after the successful team competition at the Olympics last week, is seen as a serious blow to the entire nation in Russia's private, state and social media.

Alexander Davydov

sports editor.

  • Follow I follow

And so the protagonists are desperately looking for exclusion criteria.

The Russian Olympic champion in figure skating, Tatiana Navka, was convinced of Valiyeva's innocence in the daily newspaper "Sport-Express": "In figure skating, no doping helps you win a medal." The whole thing was clearly a planned action against the Russian team.

The effect of trimetazidine is controversial.

It is considered a heart drug for the treatment of angina pectoris, which actually makes top-class sport impossible, but in any case life-threatening.

The substance on the anti-doping list is said to stimulate blood flow, which could reduce stress.

Figure skating, training and competition are extremely demanding for body and mind.

Navka's husband Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, also commented on Russian television about the doping affair: "There are currently no open questions for the Kremlin.

The Kremlin has a call: we should all keep calm.

For now, we're assuming it's just a misunderstanding."

Judgment from the Cas ad hoc panel

You stand behind the athlete without limits and call on all citizens to support her: "Kamila, don't hide your face!" said Peskow.

"You are Russian.

Proceed proudly and most importantly: compete and defeat them all!” This Monday, the ad hoc panel of the International Court of Arbitration for Sport wants to publish its verdict after a hearing on Sunday in Beijing.

Shortly after Peskov's call, the Russian news agency Interfax quoted Valentina Matviyenko, chairwoman of the Federation Council.

She suspects foreign interference behind the case: "A certain clarity has been provided, in my opinion, by recent statements from across the ocean, which show that this story is connected to the already well-known 'Rodchenkov Act'.

We remember who was behind him then, and we now understand that behind all this, the manipulations of the intelligence services can gradually be guessed.”

Grigory Rodchenkov once headed the Moscow anti-doping laboratory and contributed to the manipulation of many samples taken by Russian athletes with the help of the secret service during the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.

He fled to the United States and became the key witness for the state doping program in Russia.

The United States therefore passed a new law, the "Rodchenkov Act", which is primarily intended to attack those behind doping, trainers, doctors and officials.

The law also targets "international doping conspiracies" where the event in question also involves American participants or sponsors.

The proven state doping led to the nominal exclusion of the Russian team from the Olympics.

In Beijing, the Russians are only allowed to compete on behalf of the Russian Olympic Committee and under a neutral flag.

Matviyenko expressed confidence that sports specialists, officials and lawyers would do everything possible to refute the allegations and restore the honor of Russian sport.

While Russian social media has argued that the drug is not performance-enhancing at all, Russian Olympic Committee President Stanislav Pozdnyakov has criticized the time lag between when the sample was taken on December 25 and when the result was reported to Russian Antidoping Agency RUSADA on February 8: "It seems to me that the rehearsals were deliberately held back until the end of the team event." Valiyeva's coach, Eteri Tutberidze, insisted on the innocence of her athletes, saying that this was not a guess, "but an axiom" , that is, a valid truth that requires no proof.

However, the discussion in Russia is not one-sidedly geared towards a conspiracy.

Duma deputy and three-time Olympic champion in figure skating Irina Rodnina looked inward: "The only thing I want to say after the official statements of the International Olympic Committee, the International Testing Agency and the World Anti-Doping Agency is I feel sorry for the girl," she said.

“But those who led you to a positive doping test will have to answer for that.

Otherwise everything is in vain.”

The minor is not responsible for the misery, unlike the parents, doctors and coaching staff behind her: "Those who perform today without a flag and without an anthem were abandoned by athletes who during the games in 2008, 2010, 2012 at the Doping were caught, "said Rodnina: "And now we assume exactly the same situation without drawing any conclusions." The resulting image damage is enormous again, but the real reason for this is not to be found abroad, but in the question of why you really wanted to push an exceptional talent to an extreme performance at such a young age.