Valieva Banned for Four Years, Effective December 25, 2021

Lara111 said:
I watched an interview with Medvedeva, and she suggested that it's very possible someone may have spiked Valieva with the drug. This scenario seems quite plausible. However, I'm not saying this is necessarily what happened.
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The one she gave to Sobchak? If so my take from Medvedeva is not even remotely the same: she was talking about how they are all taught never to accept a single drink/food from a foreigner, to keep their water bottles to themselves, check the bottle is sealed before opening, if opened - to throw it away if they kept their eyes off the bottle for a second; if someone suggests them pills run a mile away from that person; that they sometimes would bring their own food to the competition. She does not say Valieva was spiked. She says she would be surprised if she was, because of all of the above.
 
TAHbKA said:
The one she gave to Sobchak? If so my take from Medvedeva is not even remotely the same: she was talking about how they are all taught never to accept a single drink/food from a foreigner, to keep their water bottles to themselves, check the bottle is sealed before opening, if opened - to throw it away if they kept their eyes off the bottle for a second; if someone suggests them pills run a mile away from that person; that they sometimes would bring their own food to the competition. She does not say Valieva was spiked. She says she would be surprised if she was, because of all of the above.
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Funny, most references are of "foreign" actions.
 
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TAHbKA said:
The one she gave to Sobchak? If so my take from Medvedeva is not even remotely the same: she was talking about how they are all taught never to accept a single drink/food from a foreigner, to keep their water bottles to themselves, check the bottle is sealed before opening, if opened - to throw it away if they kept their eyes off the bottle for a second; if someone suggests them pills run a mile away from that person; that they sometimes would bring their own food to the competition. She does not say Valieva was spiked. She says she would be surprised if she was, because of all of the above.
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Right, but it means this happens often. You just look away, and someone compromises you.
 
Lara111 said:
Right, but it means this happens often. You just look away, and someone compromises you.
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It doesn't mean that at all.

Olympic-track athletes in all sports that I am familiar with in the US are told these things too even though there is no instance on record of anyone tampering with other people's food & drink in those sports that I am aware of. It's one of those things where it's easy enough to take these precautions so it's worth it even if the chance of this happening is quite small.

It's not a case of US athletes being more moral than in other countries either. It's that other ways to mess with your competition are easier and surer. In figure skating in the US, the sort of thing that does happen often enough is people messing with skates or costumes. In triathlon, people have been caught letting the air out of other competitors' tires. These things are easier to do and are more likely to work so that is what cheaters do.
 
TAHbKA said:
Another 15y.o Russian skater with a doping. Panteleeva (I never heard her name, assume this is the first and the last time I hear it)
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www.sport-express.ru

Допинг у 15-летней фигуристки Понтелеенко. Что об этом известно

Новая история с подозрением на допинг произошла в российском фигурном катании.
www.sport-express.ru www.sport-express.ru
Google translated excerpt:
Ponteleenko is a fairly high-level figure skater in Oleg Tataurov's group in St. Petersburg, she trained quadruple jumps. The sample was taken at the end of the 2023/24 season. "SE" knows that the doping control was organized at Ponteleenko's last tournament in her career - the Russian Senior Championship in April 2024 in Kazan. There, she finished her performances in a high third place - the entire top three were tested.
As sources report, closer to the summer of 2024, when the national team lists began to take shape, rumors began to appear that Ponteleenko might miss the upcoming season due to heart problems. SE's interlocutors could not recall any alarming diagnoses that Nadezhda had previously had - but, to be fair, one of the skaters with experience in a top-level career said that, if desired, "heart problems can be found in many." They say that an in-depth medical examination can be conducted so thoroughly that fewer athletes will be allowed to participate than now.
SE sources believe that it was the doping case that influenced, among other things, Ponteleenko's decision to skip the season and put her career on hold. Nadezhda herself explained her absence in an interview with SE at the beginning of the season as follows: "I have heart problems, I started having them last season. It's a congenital disease. I'm currently undergoing tests, and I have another one coming up. Based on its results, we'll decide when I can return to training."
Ponteleyenko's coach Oleg Tataurov spoke to TASS more carefully in early October, but also mentioned his heart: "Will Nadezhda Ponteleyenko miss the entire season? It will depend on the doctors, until they make any statements about her heart, we cannot plan anything here. There is no clearance yet."
To be fair, one of SE's sources claims that "the coach is not to blame" in this case. According to our information, there was a misunderstanding between the coach and the skater's mother. But one way or another, this does not cancel the fact that the skater may face disqualification for up to four years. Moreover, according to SE's information, this is not the only case of anti-doping rule violation under consideration by RUSADA in figure skating.
Ponteleenko is a junior winner of the Panin-Kolomenkin Memorial, a prize winner of the Russian Championship for seniors, and a winner of the Russian Grand Prix stages. In response to a call from SE, the skater's coach Tataurov said: "No comment. I won't comment on this at all."
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I don’t know… I would think Russia would have enough of a farce in place to try to convince people they should be let back in when the war is over. But I didn’t think they’d actually catch anyone. I thought it would just be going through the motions enough to fool them.

But then again maybe she’s the fall guy to make the farce seem more real. Or maybe they’re testing out new doping regimens when the outsiders aren’t watching as closely and only banning those who do poorly enough at it to get caught for an obvious positive.
 
Will ask a :sekret: , but IIRC they are still testing with a Swedish lab. Also the IOC banned them, but not all sports federations and there is a chance the ISU may decide to have the Russians again. Why test a 15yo or let her participate the senior events - beats me.
 
TAHbKA said:
Will ask a :sekret: , but IIRC they are still testing with a Swedish lab. Also the IOC banned them, but not all sports federations and there is a chance the ISU may decide to have the Russians again. Why test a 15yo or let her participate the senior events - beats me.
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Eh, most feds allow skaters to skate senior domestically who aren't age-eligible internationally - Mao Shimada & Rio Nakata (among other junior skaters) just qualified for Japanese Sr Nats, Josephine Lee won silver at US Nats last year & was 5th the year before (and she's hardly the first - see Alysa Liu). Part of me wishes these feds wouldn't allow it, but the RFSF is hardly alone in allowing it.
 
I have heart problems, I started having them last season. It's a congenital disease.
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:cautious: Valieva and her fifty-six pharmaceutical substances. All those other Russian athletes and their meldonium. Sometimes I wonder how Russian skaters manage to get out of bed in the morning, much less set foot on the ice.
 
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I am not sure that this article about Iga Swiatek's one-month ban for using trimetazidine will be accessible to those without an online subscription to The New York Times, but I will quote a bit because it goes to why Valieva's ban is as long as it is.

What determined the length of Swiatek’s ban?
If it can be proved, like in this case, that the athlete had no knowledge of the presence of the banned substance, and that it was reasonable for them to have that expectation, then that will affect the level of punishment they receive.

Here, it was deemed reasonable that Swiatek should have taken a medicine that was not supposed to contain any known banned substances, and which is available over the counter in Poland and was recommended by her doctor, without anticipating that it might lead to a doping violation.

The ITIA considered “the player’s level of fault was considered to be at the lowest end of the range” and the shortness of Swiatek’s ban is commensurate with that. Had she been deemed to have had no fault or negligence then she would have escaped a ban altogether.
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:grandpa:
 
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Vagabond said:

I am not sure that this article about Iga Swiatek's one-month ban for using trimetazidine will be accessible to those without an online subscription to The New York Times, but I will quote a bit because it goes to why Valieva's ban is as long as it is.



:grandpa:
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They were able to test the specific batch of the melatonin supplement and confirm that it contained unlabeled trimetazidine. That's substantially different than Valieva's case.
 
Sylvia said:
Nov. 10, 2024 article - Figure skater Kamila Valieva eyes comeback after suspension: https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1149940/kamila-valieva-comeback-after-suspension

"Kamila Valieva: Despair on the Ice—The Fate of Russian Athletes" - Documentary 360 (NHK World’s English version of their 50-minute documentary that originally aired in 🇯🇵 in early March 2024) was uploaded to their YT channel on Sept. 28, 2024: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yqf-QVHUFkk
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Was this Associated Press article by Eddie Pells (Sept. 12, 2024) ever posted? (elsewhere on FSU, I mean?)
apnews.com

'Stop that urgently.' Possible path to innocence for Russian skater was held back at WADA's urging

When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear embattled Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency, the leader of that organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote.
apnews.com apnews.com
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear embattled Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency, the leader of that organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote.
No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport went on without it. What impact the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later become the focal point of a contamination case involving a group of Chinese swimmers who were not sanctioned after testing positive.
Previously undisclosed details, including text exchanges between WADA’s director general and another agency executive about what might have been a helpful turn of events for Valieva during the investigation, were revealed to The Associated Press by people familiar with the case. The people shared the information on condition of anonymity due to fear of retribution.
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I have zero sympathy for Russia/RUSADA. They brought their problems on themselves through their actions.

As for Valieva, we've already discussed the absurdity of the strawberry smoothie scenario and it's clear WADA didn't buy it either. I'm sure Team Eteri worked overtime to come up with that and I guess you have to admire their creativity if nothing else, but IMO, Valieva got the correct punishment. I only wish the ISU had the cojones to reallocate the points correctly so Canada could have gotten its (rightful) medal in the TE.
 
Willin said:
Regardless of whatever excuse is listed in the AP article, it's not even Russia making it.

If Russia truly, honest to god thought she was innocent, they would've gone for these scientific excuses in the first place - not dumb grasping-for-straws grandpa water excuses.
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They have ruined the life of a young person who now is humiliated and has no future in a sport for which she had love and talent.
 
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