Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva’s team has claimed her positive drugs test was caused by contamination from her grandfather’s medication.
The 15-year-old produced a positive result for the angina drug trimetazidine from a test taken on December 25, which was not officially reported until February 8, the day after Valieva helped the Russian Olympic Committee win gold in the team figure skating competition.
She was given the all-clear to compete in today’s individual event by a Court of Arbitration panel yesterday.
And the IOC’s Denis Oswald, an expert in doping who chaired the commission investigating Russian cheating at the Sochi Olympics, said contamination had been blamed for the positive sample. He said: “Her argument was this contamination happened with a product her grandfather was taking.”
Russian newspaper Pravda reported that Valieva’s lawyer, Anna Kozmenko, had argued that case in the hearing in front of the three-person CAS panel in Beijing.
“There can be completely different ways how it got into her body,” Kozmenko was quoted as saying. “For example, her grandfather drank something from a glass, saliva got in, this glass was somehow later used by an athlete. Or the drug lay down on some surface, traces remained, the drug lay down on this surface, which the athlete then drank.”
Although Valieva has been cleared to compete today and on Thursday, when the women’s individual event reaches its conclusion, she could yet face sanctions over her positive test.
And the medals for both the team event and the individual, should as expected Valieva feature, may not be decided for months. In addition, the World Anti-Doping Agency have opened investigations into the teenager’s entourage over any potential doping violations.
The positive test raised further question marks about the participation of the ROC in Beijing, with Russia banned from the Games for two years because of their state-sponsored doping programme.
But Oswald, chair of the IOC’s disciplinary commission, said it appeared there was “no connection with the institutionalised doping we had in Sochi”.
Nonetheless, Valieva’s case has overshadowed Beijing 2022 in a saga that looks likely to run and run.
“We want to allocate the medal to the right person,” said Oswald of the decision for no medal ceremony for the team event and the individual should Valieva win a medal. “As long as the decision regarding the doping case of this athlete has not been clarified — she has delivered a positive sample — until we have a clear situation then we will not allocate the medals.”
Valieva, who revealed her hearing had lasted seven hours and she sat through the duration on video link in the Olympic Village, is bidding for double gold in her discipline but admitted her preparations had been hampered by the past week.
“These days have been very difficult for me,” she told Russia’s Channel One. “It’s as if I don’t have any emotions left. I am happy but, at the same time, I am emotionally tired. That is why these tears of joy and a little bit of sadness. But, of course, I am happy to take part in the Olympic Games.”
