Kamila Valieva will know on Monday afternoon if the Beijing Olympics are already over for her. It will be the Tas (Sports Arbitration Tribunal) – with an ad hoc commission chaired by the Italian Fabio Iudica – to decide on the fate of the 15-year-old Russian skater, for days at the center of a sensational doping affair due to the positivity to a prohibited substance, dating back to a month and a half ago, but exploded at the Games in progress, when the International Olympic Committee announced that the awards ceremony of the team event, won by Russia on Monday, had been postponed for “legal” reasons, due to the fact that the person concerned is under the age of 16 and therefore a “protected person”. Even today, the baby skating phenomenon trained regularly, 40 minutes of work under the eyes of her trainer, Eteri Tutbderidze, from whose school all the very young Russian champions of recent years have come out, amid admiration and suspicion of very hard methods. . At the end of training, athlete and technique talked, Tutdberidze embraced her creature.
“I am absolutely sure that Kamila is innocent and clean – he told the Russian media – We do not abandon her, we are with our athletes in joy and pain”. That is, the World Skating Federation (ISU) and the International Testing Agency (ITA) have requested the removal of Valieva, appealing against the lifting of the suspension by the Russian anti-doping agency. Tomorrow the CAS will hold a videoconference hearing. “After the hearing, the jury will deliberate and prepare the arbitration award containing your decision” expected for 14 afternoon. That is only one day before Valieva participates in the women’s figure skating competition. The very young Russian star, who played a leading role in her country’s team gold on Monday, tested positive for trimetazidine after competing in St. Petersburg on December 25. But according to the ITA this positivity of Valieva only emerged on February 8, as per the sample examined in the Stockholm laboratory accredited by WADA, or the day after winning team gold in Beijing.
“Failure to report a test carried out in December until after the team event at the Games is a catastrophic failure of the public protection system – underlined the head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, Travis Tygart – of the integrity of the Games and the cleaning of the athletes who had to compete “. Russia’s anti-doping agency RUSADA said it was informed that the sharp rise in Covid-19 infections earlier this year would be the cause of the delay. While Valeva was training in Beijing today, the president of the Russian Figure Skating Federation, Alexander Gorchkov, said: “I repeat once again that we have no doubts about the honesty of our athlete. We must find out, on the one hand, all the circumstances. what happened and, on the other hand, what happened to the anti-doping champion of December 25th almost a month and a half after it was sent to a foreign laboratory “.
REPRODUCTION RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
