According to the figure skater’s lawyers, the Olympic doping scandal surrounding Kamila Valiyeva could have been triggered by her grandfather’s medicine.
There was “contamination with a product that her grandfather took,” said IOC member Denis Oswald, citing the Russian’s lawyers in Beijing. This was part of Valiyeva’s defense in the summary proceedings of the International Court of Arbitration for Sports over her admission to the women’s singles, added the chairman of the Disciplinary Commission of the International Olympic Committee.
Her lawyers presented “reasons that cast doubt on her guilt,” said the Swiss. According to Russian media, Valiyeva’s lawyer pointed out in the Cas hearing that the figure skater could have drunk from a glass that her grandfather had previously used. The banned substance could then have entered her body through saliva transmission.
Permission to start in the individual competition
At the Russian championships at the end of December, Valiewa tested positive for the banned heart drug trimetazidine, which stimulates the blood supply to the heart by widening the blood vessels. However, the finding only became known during the Winter Games in Beijing. In view of the age of the 15-year-old and the insufficient evidence, the Cas judges decided to give her permission to start in the women’s competition on Tuesday and Thursday.
Shortly after the Cas verdict, the IOC decided that there would be no award ceremony at the Winter Games if Valiyeva won another medal in the women’s singles. The medal ceremony for the team competition, in which Valiyeva led the Russians to gold, was canceled at short notice.
Criticism from the US team
The US athletes’ representatives sharply attacked the IOC decision. “All competitions at the Games must conclude with a medal ceremony. We call on the IOC not to take this away from the athletes,” the US Olympic Committee’s Athletes’ Commission said on Tuesday.
“The case is sad because there are only losers. But it also makes you angry because it doesn’t surprise you,” the “Spiegel” quoted the German athletes’ representative Maximilian Klein as saying. Valiewa is “victim of a system that gives everyone an incentive to produce medals under inhumane conditions”.
Internationally, sports judges and Olympic organizers received a lot of criticism. “What a slap in the face to athletes who don’t cheat,” wrote USA Today. The “Gazzetta dello Sport” found: “A defeat for the IOC, the anti-doping fight and sport.” The British «Daily Mail» referred to Russia’s record of sins since the scandal surrounding state-organized doping at the Sochi Winter Games in 2014. «Well, they’ve done it again. Olympic Games sullied again, sport festival sullied again,” the newspaper wrote. (dpa)