Valieva “innocent and clean”, the coach announces in advance


Russian figure skating star Kamila Valieva in the middle of a doping scandal threaten to overshadow competitions At the Beijing Games, he returned to the ice on an Olympic training track on Saturday, performing quadruple jump after quadruple jump in preparation for a competition in which he could soon be banned.

Valieva’s status as a competitor at the Games has been cast into doubt after her announcement on Friday. tested positive for a banned drug A find in December that would have made it uncompetitive in Beijing had it not been delayed for more than six weeks.

“This is a very complex and controversial situation,” Eteri Tutberidze, Valieva’s coach, told Russia’s state television Channel One on Saturday in her first public statement about the case. “There are many questions and very few answers.”

Despite these unknowns, Tutberidze said, “I wanted to say that we are absolutely sure that Kamila is innocent and pure.”

The legal battle over Valieva’s eligibility to compete at the Games will continue with an eligibility hearing to be held before a panel from the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Sunday. Court, in a statementShe said she expected a decision on Monday afternoon, just a day before the women’s short program began.

The panel of judges will consider appeals by various groups, including the World Anti-Doping Agency, the International Olympic Committee and the International Skating Union, which objected to Russia’s antidoping agency’s decision to lift the temporary suspension of 15-year-old Valieva. last week.

Russian antidoping agency Said Valieva got the positive test result On Monday, the same day, Valieva led the Russian team to the gold medal in the team event. Shortly before the medals were awarded in the team event, he temporarily suspended it on Tuesday after reporting that he had tested positive, but lifted the penalty a day later.

In comments to Channel One, Tutberidze said she wasn’t sure how Valieva was cleared to compete in the Olympics in the first place. It took more than six weeks for the Stockholm lab to report that the urine sample, which Valieva presented on December 25, contained traces of trimetazidine, a banned drug thought to increase endurance.

Russian officials were quick to defend Valieva, the heavy favorite for the women’s singles gold medal. Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin said he met with Valieva twice and said, “It is doubly convincing that she is completely innocent.” Tutberidze aroused new suspicions about the delayed test result, saying: “Either it was an unfortunate combination or it was a very well thought out plan. I hope our authorities will not abandon us, defend our rights and prove our innocence.”



Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *