That speaks more to the culture of doping in Russia than it does issues with the anti-doping system. Russian sporting authorities, and politicians have using the TUE's, even though they are available to all athletes with appropriate documentation, as a way to gaslight their people and make this a 'the world vs Russia' rather than an issue with the sporting culture in Russia.
Eh, I think it speaks more to the lack of understanding of ADHD and its treatment in Russia.... but now we are drifting way off topic.
It's not about trust - that's a propaganda line from the Russian government, and parroted by Russian sporting officials. It fits a narrative that the Putin regime would like the people of Russia to believe so they use it. If another narrative worked better that'd use that. They don't care about doping, or the athletes, they just want sports to glorify the regime, and when something tarnishes that affect they want to turn the issue so that it's about Mother Russia as victim. That's what nationalist, autocratic regimes do.
If the medication was used for legitimate medical reason they could have applied for a TUE, but they didn't because they back up the use of the drug. If we use Sharapova as a specific example, she was not even reporting the medication on her medical disclosure forms when the drug was not banned.
Never said that no one had ever cheated, but the issue is that the Russians repeatedly invoke TUE's as the equivalent to doping rather than dealing with their own issues.
Professional sports - particularly North American teams sports - are very different animals compared to most Olympic sports. They don't have the same controls because they are not subject to the WADA code. That being said a lot of things have changed over the years in professional sports, particularly the amount of money at stake.Even when 35 and 40 year old athletes continue to dominate their professional sports. Nope, definitely no corruption of testing controls going on there.
I'm in favour of punishing the guilty party in this case, as well as for the doping scandal from the early part of the last decade but that means that the Russians have to take some responsibility for the problem in their sporting community. They are not the only country where this is an issue, but they are the largest, and most frequent so they get a lot of attention for it.
Except that particular drug was not added to the banned list suddenly. There was plenty of notice, plenty of communication as well including communicating a cutoff date where you shouldn't take if you wanted to test clean on Jan 1 when it became banned.
They get attention because they were engaged in state-sponsored doping. If your government is helping you dope, you don't have to worry about testing positive. It's like when China helped gymnasts fake their ages by providing official birth certificates. Or way back when East Germany was doping athletes and no one could catch them.
We've never really figured out how to do institutional responsibility. All our legal institutions, and our sense of justice is about punishing guilty parties, and compensating victims, but when it comes to institutional responsibility it doesn't fit within those narrow parameters. Cycling is one of those sports with a deep history of doping that crosses national boundaries to the point where it was the norm, and those not doping were in the minority, and also at the back of the pack, so it's not surprising that that level of corruption would rise into the organization that runs the sport. UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) is so corrupt, and morally vacant that they gave an award to Turkmenistan's authoritarian leader Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow in 2019, and awarded the country the 2021 Track World Championships. The event was later moved to France because of COVID restrictions, though Berimuhamedow maintains that there has never been a single COVID case in the country.
I've read this here a bunch of times & I need to argue with it. The Russian Federation did not know they didn't need Valieva to win team gold. We don't even know they didn't need her to win team gold, but Russia certainly didn't know it at the time. Scherbakova was a hot mess in her free skate at Russian Nationals. Trusova has had injury rumors swirling around her all season. Kondratiuk lost to Jin, Kvitelashvili, and Grassl in the short and the free during the men's event & we all knew that was possible during the team event, just as we all knew it was possible that Vincent or Nathan could defeat even Japan in the men's free. Canada could have missed the final flight altogether and given the U.S. pair team a better shot at a higher finish or have imploded for that matter. Karen or Mariah could have finished 3rd as expected or even higher with help from a miss by one of the top ladies, as happened at Worlds. The possibility was there, even with Valieva skating clean. It would certainly have been there without her skating. China could have put in Sui & Han in the pairs free. And none of this takes into account the threat from Japan. There were many things Russia could not know before the event.
Well yes of course, it would've just been spin had they ruled against Valieva - which we now know that they didn't. I still hold with my initial opinion the Panelists should have all been from neutral countries.
I just hope that Eteri does NOT escape from this unscathed. She is responsible for those girls, and overseed EVERYTHING. And this certainly falls into the everything category.Objection, strawman argument. Not "all sportsmen" have recently tested positive for a banned substance
Also, there are no drugs that you take to help you "legit" win a game. So yes, if a drug actually helps you win a game, it will be banned because you aren't supposed to win games with drugs.
But CAS did rewrite the WADA Code. Where a "protected person" is treated differently from other athletes, the WADA Code is very specific. First, a "protected person" is subject to different final penalty provisions -- ranging from reprimand to two-year ban (other athletes face four-year bans). Second, a "protected person" does not have the same burden of proving they do not have "significant fault" for the doping. An adult athlete must prove: (1) the drug was ingested unknowingly; and (2) how the drug got into their system. A "protected person" does not have the burden of proving the second part, though Valieva's team had offered an explanation (albeit, a ludicrous one). Third, a "protected person" is not subject to the mandatory disclosure provisions of the WADA Code; disclosure is optional depending on circumstances.
The younger the better
So they retire and start families immediately. The younger the better. Lipnitskaya already has a child. You see, 'family' in Russia is very important (as if it is not in other countries).The trick is to dope children
Eurosport commentators here gently circumvented that and they surely already heard about it. But this is so cringy that I can't blame them.
I understand where you are coming from. It is a cultural thing. Achieve before you are in your are in your mid twenties, or you die a spinster. Who wants to marry an "old girl?"
They'd never do it, but IMO it would be better to have everyone else get the medals/have their podium moment, but just leave her spot empty. If the results end up needing to be changed after the fact, the medals can be re-distributed at that point. Or a second ceremony held at the first Worlds that takes place after the entire investigation is done.
Russia won't do anything. Can the WADA, IOC or ISU?
Yes. It certainly seems as though they are protecting her rights at the expense of all others. It's absolutely infuriating.
The other who is impacted are Tutberidze girls. Most ''others'' cannot even dream about Olympic podium. Valieva is not on dope now. She is clean and under a lot of pressure. They cannot bit her even in this situation.
