“Did anyone defend Camila at the hearing?”

The four-year disqualification of Kamila Valieva and the subsequent decision of the ISU to award the national team instead of gold medals bronze medals at the Beijing Olympics in the team tournament remain one of the main topics for discussion throughout the world, and not only in figure skating.

Thus, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke in defense of Russian athletes on Wednesday. According to him, the country will do everything possible to help athletes, without whom major international competitions become “detrimental.”

“At WADA, officials will soon be finishing their jobs, and they are now doing everything to justify the trust of those who support them,” the head of state said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry also promised to fight for the rights of athletes and not tolerate their removal. The official representative of the department, Maria Zakharova, noted the “continuous attempts” of the collective West to use the topic of sports for their own politicized and selfish purposes.

“Let me remind you that about ten years ago the United States actively began to develop a campaign around Russian sports and athletes.... A special program was adopted to oust Russian athletes from world stages, to marginalize Russian sports and Russia as a sports power, to destroy world sports. The goal is to create preconditions that are exclusively beneficial for the United States in this area. Now we see that all this is being done without any camouflage or attempt to disguise it all... Everything is going on openly,” Zakharova emphasized.

Conversations continue in the world of figure skating. On Wednesday it became known that due to disqualification, Valieva interrupted training in Eteri Tutberidze’s group. And the coach finally spoke out about her pupil’s case. As the specialist explained, she had previously remained silent, since any statement she made could affect and interfere with the investigation.

“I probably most of all wanted this story to be thoroughly investigated and for me not to have any questions left, even if it was an oversight, a mistake or a crime on someone’s part. For many years now I have been working, sometimes without days off or vacations, for the sake of athletes’ results, and I, like no one else, want to know what happened to Kamila and how this drug got into her body. All my athletes were and remain clean, I am for clean sport, it cannot be otherwise,” Tutberidze wrote on social networks.

However, according to Eteri Georgievna, there has been no clarity in the matter, and accusations against Valieva’s coaching staff continue.

“I have no questions for Camila, she is a child, and on my part I will continue to support her in every possible way. No offense to all my previous athletes - Kamila is the most gifted athlete. And her sporting lot faced a test that is difficult to describe in words. Regarding the verdict, I have one main question: did anyone defend Kamila at the hearings, because the verdict couldn’t have been worse. Kamila’s story is our pain,” the specialist added.

Sports lawyer Artyom Patsev also had questions about the figure skater’s defense. He was shocked by the length of Valieva’s disqualification. He is sure that the minor girl should have been sentenced to six months or a maximum of 18 months.

“But why four years, the arbitrators actually explained... The version presented by the athlete, her representatives, was not considered by the arbitrators as more or less trustworthy. I think that in such cases such wording is written when the version is changed. And the new version is weakly provable. Apart from stories in the spirit of “believe me” or “I swear on the Bible,” relatively speaking, some objective, even indirect, but some objectively existing evidence, apparently, very little was presented, and at the same time the version changed. And this is always the case for arbitrators, not only in sports disputes, but also in general civil disputes, in international arbitration, this is always such a very not even bell, but just a bell ringing, an alarm bell, that something is not right here,” Patsev quotes. "Championship".

A similar opinion was expressed by RT columnist Elena Vaitsekhovskaya. According to the specialist, the CAS decision mechanism regarding Kamila looks very similar to refereeing in biased sports.

“It is clear that these reasons will never be voiced, but in the end some points could easily be missed. So it is here. It is clear that these are just assumptions, but I can’t help but feel that behind the four-year verdict against Valieva there is more irritation than common sense. Like, you guys are annoying with your lies. Well, then you’ll get it to the fullest!” — Vaitsekhovskaya wrote in her Telegram channel.

And the director of “Sambo-70” Renat Laishev expressed an unexpected version. In his opinion, the story of Valieva’s doping could be a fiction. The skater was simply asked not to deny anything in the hope of receiving a minimum period of disqualification.

“Surely she was instructed so that she would recognize and these sanctions would be weaker. The entire West is deceivers and liars. You can't have anything to do with them. This is their main prerogative, and today it all came to light, and we see their face, which was behind the mask,” the specialist noted in an interview with Tatar-Inform.

American journalist Philip Hersh also stood up for Camila. He called Valieva’s punishment unjustifiably harsh, given that this was the first violation committed by a 15-year-old at that time. In his opinion, it was possible to cancel the results, deprive him of medals, but give a shorter period of disqualification.

"The criminal must be punished"

At the same time, the public wondered who was really to blame for what happened. Thus, General Director of RUSADA Veronika Loginova stated that the accomplice or initiator of Kamila’s taking of a prohibited substance is obliged to answer for what he did.

“This criminal - there is no other way to call him - must be punished, up to and including criminal liability, for inducing a minor athlete to violate anti-doping rules. In Russia, unlike most of even the most advanced countries in this area, criminal liability for this was introduced in 2016,” Loginova emphasized in a commentary to RIA Novosti.

Four-time Olympic champion Alexander Tikhonov spoke equally harshly. He considers everyone around the skater to be involved in doping.

“When will we learn to face the truth? Of course, this is a biased attitude towards us, given the entire political situation against Russia. But explain to me how this drug got into Valieva’s body? Please note: there have been more than 30 similar cases in biathlon. And even before all the sanctions, we were kicked out of the IBU for so much doping. Tell me, who is to blame and was anyone punished for this? No, only the athletes were injured. And I have already addressed the athletes: drive away your doctors and everyone around you who suggests this. In the case of Camila, both the athlete herself and her entourage are to blame. Starting with the coach and everyone who is present,” Tikhonov is sure.

Honored Coach of the USSR Tatyana Tarasova, in turn, also did not believe Tutberidze’s words. According to the specialist, the mentor should be aware of all the nuances of her student’s case.

“Eteri Georgievna cannot help but know who defended Kamila in court. This is the first thing a coach should be interested in. Not only Valieva, but also Tutberidze herself is involved in the situation. How can she not know this? We should ask her who defended Camila in court. If, God forbid, such a situation happened to me, I would say that it was my fault. I don’t evaluate the actions of Eteri Tutberidze, but I would say that I was guilty, I mixed it up, I gave the wrong thing, but I would remove responsibility for this from the child. This looks like the only right decision,” Tarasova told Match TV.

High jumper Danil Lysenko, who himself served a four-year disqualification, drew attention to another very important aspect. Now Valieva needs to look for a place to train. Personally, he had problems with this.

“In this situation, it is important to remain strong and not allow yourself to be broken. During the period of my disqualification, I did not have the opportunity to train, but I hope that Kamila will have this opportunity, I definitely need to take advantage of it and not give up. Of course, it’s very difficult for her now, I imagine, but she needs to set new goals and move forward, not paying attention to all the negativity. Kamila is the best of the best, and this cannot be taken away from her, but I’m sure she will still earn medals and achievements,” the athlete explained.

And State Duma deputy Dmitry Svishchev expressed hope that, despite everything that is happening, Valieva will remain in figure skating. According to him, it’s too early for Camila to end her career.

“There is no need to rush into the so-called return of awards. Various appeal procedures are still pending. Including from the Russian Olympic Committee. And Kamila does not need to end her career, there are still chances to continue it,” TASS quotes the parliamentarian.

“This cannot be taken from our hearts”

Opinions were also divided regarding the ISU's decision to give the Russians bronze medals. USADA head Travis Tigert called it nonsense.

“The result of the team tournament is made up of all the performances. To the best of our knowledge, there is no specific rule in its regulations for such a situation, so the disciplinary rule must be applied. It’s nonsense if Valieva gets four years, but Russia will retain Olympic bronze. A fair and honest result is to apply the disciplinary rules and award bronze to the Canadian team,” the BBC quotes a specialist as saying.

Now two-time Olympic champion Nathan Chen was happy about the team gold, but was disappointed with the situation as a whole.

“This decision is certainly a victory for clean sport. However, the fact that this happened at all is not a victory for anyone. Throughout our careers we have competed cleanly. Every substance we take is carefully tested before we even think about taking it. Without the purity of the sport, its good name is lost. I'm very happy for the team. Everyone there has shown tremendous dedication throughout their careers, and I don't know of any other group of people who deserve it more. They all held up incredibly well during a period of uncertainty and showed themselves and their country, the USA, with dignity,” the skater noted on CNN.

At the same time, in Russia this reaction of the American was explained by the fact that Chen understands the undeservingness of this gold.

“Chen is a great athlete, and great people love to compete with great people. For me, the victory of the Russian team at the Olympic Games in Beijing was absolutely indisputable. Nathan understands well who was the best (in the team tournament. -

RT

), and, of course, no one needs such handouts. The Russia-Canada and Russia-USA hockey matches have always been valuable. It's a brand, it's cool. No one is interested when they win against obviously weak opponents and it is clear who will win. Therefore, Chen is a normal athlete and a normal person. There are still reasonable people,” said coach Alexander Zhulin.

Figure skater Alexander Gallyamov, who competed in the team tournament together with Anastasia Mishina and will now receive only Olympic bronze instead of gold, decided to approach the issue philosophically.

“One day I will become a coach (diploma, I remember you), I will teach children how to do support (literally and figuratively). Mark’s kids (where did he go, by the way?) or Aesthete will ask me: “Uncle Sasha, what level was the figure when you skated?” And I will say, proudly adjusting my forelock: “The level is such that even “counting” the scores of five people against the allotted six resulted in third place. And this is under enormous pressure and other “joys” that you are better off not knowing about.” I’ll say it and look around carefully. Suddenly Tamara Nikolaevna and Anastasia Viktorovna are there looking at me and facepalming me,” Gallyamov wrote.

Mark Kondratyuk, in turn, noted that he does not yet feel anything in connection with the ISU decision. Bronze came as a surprise to him.

“I expected either better or worse, it turned out to be some kind of average result, it’s just unexpected, in my opinion. I didn’t calculate this in my head,” Kondratyuk said on Channel One.

Victoria Sinitsina, who danced with Nikita Katsalapov, spoke most emotionally in this case. As the athlete admitted, this is a very offensive decision for her.

“I spent the whole day turning my thoughts around in my head. And now it’s time to go to bed, and I’m still doing it. I'll collect everything tomorrow. For now, I’ll just say that it’s such a shame! Boomerang is back! I love all the guys,” Sinitsina wrote in her Telegram channel.

And then she posted photos from the Olympic ice with the words: “This cannot be taken from our hearts!”