Otherwise, the detective will turn into a thriller: why in Russia they are obliged to throw all their efforts to protect Tutberidze

The story of Kamila Valieva at these Games is something bigger and much more serious than the tragedy of a little girl who lost the Olympics.

If we remove the purely emotional aspect associated with age, the championship background and inconsolable children's tears after a failed rental, the bottom line will be a plot, of which the history of sports has known many: a positive doping test that does not affect anything, but, nevertheless, is prohibited the drug, the transfer of arrows to some third-party factor and the hope that the final verdict will not be too harsh.

In the event that the hope is not justified and the injured athlete is out of the game, all further comments usually come down to the phrase "I'm sorry", which the heroes of American TV shows love to repeat in difficult situations, and to the popular hashtag, inextricably linked in the minds of the figure skating public with Valieva's coaching staff: #working on!

Perhaps the case of Valieva would not be an exception to this series, but the press conference of the President of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, changed everything.

Her very tone indicated that the IOC was not inclined to consider Valieva's case in isolation from her team.

This was perfectly illustrated by the words of a high-ranking official and Olympic champion to journalists.

“I don’t have confidence that Camila’s inner circle is trustworthy, in connection with what happened in the past, and in connection with what concerns the future,” Bach said.

It makes no sense to make claims to the head of the organization that he assessed what he saw in the Olympic report in this way: everyone is free to interpret certain events in accordance with their own views.

Another question is that during his tenure at the highest post of international sports, the IOC president managed to establish himself as a very cautious, not to say cowardly, politician.

Who would never speak aloud certain thoughts just for the reason that they suddenly came into his head under the influence of emotions.

So, it would not be superfluous to assume that Bach voiced to journalists a certain general opinion that had already developed in high international sports circles.

And this is already a direct threat not only to the coaching staff of Eteri Tutberidze, but to the entire Russian sport.

The modern information world is arranged in such a way that it does not matter at all what and how actually happens.

The winner is the one who first voiced his version and attracted maximum attention to it.

Namely, this is what the IOC and WADA are currently doing in relation to Valieva's case.

If there had been a story with a positive test of an athlete a little earlier, not at the Games, but, say, at the January European Championships, Camila could have simply been removed from the team, wait for the second test to be opened, and in case the punishment could not be avoided, just forget about the existence of the athlete, transferring the blame for what happened entirely to her family.

Like, yes, a nuisance, overlooked.

But what does the best coaching staff in the country have to do with it?

We work further...

Alas, the story turned out to be too resonant, and the reaction from the IOC and WADA was swift: in the view of these organizations, Valieva and her coaches are in the same bundle, which was voiced by Bach.

It is now impossible to take a figure skater out of this scheme without reputational damage, and not only for a single Tutberidze headquarters, but for the whole country.

That is why we need to throw all the resources to protect the coach right now, and not wait for the detective to turn into a thriller.

How exactly such a scenario can be implemented is already clear.

First, the second sample of Valieva will be opened, which (if we take into account all the previous precedents), most likely, will also confirm the presence of a prohibited drug.

The laboratory is always primarily interested in this: a discrepancy in the results of two samples of the same sample automatically jeopardizes the professional level of research.

Then, as it has already been announced, a recheck of the old samples of Tutberidze athletes over the past ten years will begin.

And even if they all turn out to be crystal clear, it is not difficult to guess what kind of information trail the process will be accompanied by.

All Russian champions, starting with Yulia Lipnitskaya, will fall under this blow one way or another, and accordingly, all the most high-profile successes of Russian figure skating can be called into question.

And sooner or later, one of the opponents in power will probably ask the question aloud: is it worth returning the flag and anthem to Russia if the situation in one of the country's main sports remains so doubtful?

It would be good to understand now that this can happen regardless of the results of the investigation.

Exactly on the same principle of unsubstantiated public opinion, which was guided by Bach, who announced on the basis of a second television picture about the heartlessness of the coaching staff of a young Russian figure skater.

The fact that the explosive situation around Valieva was not created without the participation of the IOC, the president preferred to remain silent.