Winter Olympics: Kremlin backs Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, 15, who failed drugs test – ‘don’t hide your face, perform and defeat everybody’
- “We boundlessly and fully support Kamila Valieva and call on everyone to support her,” Kremlin spokesman tells reporters
- Court of Arbitration for Sport to hold urgent hearing over whether team gold medallist can compete in women’s event
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The Kremlin said on Friday it was fully behind Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, whose Olympic gold medal hangs in the balance after she failed a doping test.
“We boundlessly and fully support Kamila Valieva and call on everyone to support her,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“And we say to Kamila: don’t hide your face. You are a Russian – perform and defeat everybody,” Peskov added.
He said the Kremlin was encouraging everyone to wait for the results of the investigation and for the International Olympic Committee to make its decision.
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“We are convinced that this is some kind of misunderstanding,” Peskov said.
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It is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency because it can increase blood flow efficiency and help endurance.
Valieva led the Russian team to gold in the team event in Beijing – landing a historic quad jump – and is a favourite for first place in the women’s individual event next week.
The Russian Olympic Committee said on Friday that Valieva had the right to compete in Beijing and that her gold medal should stand.
The International Testing Agency (ITA) confirmed reports that Valieva tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine at the Russian national championships in St Petersburg six weeks ago.
The positive test was flagged by a laboratory in Sweden on Tuesday – the day after Valieva helped the Russians win the team event and just hours before the medal ceremony, which was then postponed. Whether the Russians will lose their gold medal in the team event will be decided later.
The legal handling of Valieva’s case started with an immediate interim ban from the Beijing Olympics imposed by the Russian agency, known as Rusada, which oversaw testing at the national championships.
On Wednesday, a Rusada disciplinary panel upheld her appeal to overturn the skater’s interim ban.
The urgent hearing at CAS will only consider the question of the provisional ban at these games, said the ITA which is prosecuting on behalf of the IOC.
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“The IOC will exercise its right to appeal and not to wait for the reasoned decision by Rusada, because a decision is needed before the next competition the athlete is due to take part in,” the testing agency said.
Though Valieva is at the heart of the case, as a child she has protections in the sports’ rule book – the World Anti-Doping Code. Under these guidelines she could ultimately receive just a simple reprimand.
The focus will turn on her entourage, such as coaches and team doctors, who face a mandatory investigation as “athlete support personnel” when a minor is implicated in doping rules violations.
Valieva looks likely to be disqualified from her Russian national title in December, but could still be cleared to compete in Beijing next week.
