Valieva Banned for Four Years, Effective December 25, 2021

[Coco]

So if she had not won both phases of the ladies events, reallocating points would have shrunk the margin of victory between two non-disqualified participants, which would have impacted team totals, potentially switching rank between two countries without any DQ'd athletes.

This is quite a stretch - avoiding setting a precedent that you aren't setting. Because surely you can review the impacts of any reallocation of standing points, then say if no non-dq'd teams are adversely impacted, we do A, if a non-dq'd team is adversely impacted, we do B.

Since they're making it all up, more or less, go a step further. SMH.

 

[Firedancer]

For the sake of clarity Rule 353 para 4 in the ISU Special Regulations is not applicable in this case.

Considering their rules specifically say Rule 353 is applicable they need to provide a better explanation. And Canada needs to make a very loud, public deal about the ISU bending over backwards to make sure Russia still gets a medal.

The ISU notes with disappointment and concern the possible circumstances in which a minor has been found to have committed a significant ADRV. The ISU is fully committed to taking any appropriate steps to ensure the protection and safeguarding of all athletes, uphold the ethical behavior of the entourage and to continue the fight for clean sport and the integrity and fairness of skating competitions.

This is the best part. If that was remotely true Eteri’s entire group would be banned and they wouldn’t be trying so hard to help Russia every chance they get.

 

[overedge]

This requires public outcry a la Salt Lake City pairs 2002 (don't @ me if you don't agree with what happened there, I really don't care). Get on it, Skate Canada. And get on it, every other federation that cares about results being determined in accordance with the rules.

 

[Judy]

This requires public outcry a la Salt Lake City pairs 2002 (don't @ me if you don't agree with what happened there, I really don't care). Get on it, Skate Canada. And get on it, every other federation that cares about results being determined in accordance with the rules.

Just because we don’t see/hear it doesn’t mean they aren’t. Their office isn’t that far from from me but I’m not going to pop in and ask how the bronze medal is going lol.

2002 is a very different thing then this though. Time will tell. I’m kinda a you don’t know till you know person.

 

[skatfan]

ISU: Here are the new medals.

Public: But you aren’t following your rules

ISU:

ISU:

ISU: Ok, we are sorta following our rules to get the outcome we want because hypothetically someone could be negatively affected if we did the other thing even though no one is actually and we plan to rewrite things to be clearer so this doesn’t happen in the future.

Public: So doing it the other way doesn’t impact anyone negatively and you promise to fix it for the future meaning that you are basically thumbing your nose at us?

ISU: We will not comment further because CAS.

 

[Rhumba d’Amour]

“ For the sake of clarity Rule 353 para 4 in the ISU Special Regulations is not applicable in this case.”

Okay, this rule does not apply. What rule DOES apply? Please cite the applicable rule(s), quote the relevant language of the rule(s), and take us through how you are applying that language to the facts at hand.

I think that absent this kind of explanation, non-Russia countries might well conclude that they’d rather not participate in the Team Event in 2026.

 

[Karen-W]

“ For the sake of clarity Rule 353 para 4 in the ISU Special Regulations is not applicable in this case.”

Okay, this rule does not apply. What rule DOES apply? Please cite the applicable rule(s), quote the relevant language of the rule(s), and take us through how you are applying that language to the facts at hand.

I think that absent this kind of explanation, non-Russia countries might well conclude that they’d rather not participate in the Team Event in 2026.

Oh, I think that non-Russia countries might well conclude they want to participate - as long as Russia isn't participating, lol.

 

[Allskate]

LMFAO.

So, basically - "no, Canada, Rule 353 doesn't apply, but we're not telling anyone which rules DO apply, so just suck it up and accept our math, buttercups."

Yeah. They managed to link to the CAS decision and their own statement, but not to the actual team event rules. What a joke.

ISU says: "The ISU is fully committed to taking any appropriate steps to ensure the protection and safeguarding of all athletes, uphold the ethical behavior of the entourage and to continue the fight for clean sport and the integrity and fairness of skating competitions."

Unless stripping a medal from a country that systematically dopes changes results in a way they don't like. Or Russia doesn't like.

 

[xxibjt]

I think the next question is does Canada have the money to fight this bogus decision?

 

[Rhumba d’Amour]

Oh, I think that non-Russia countries might well conclude they want to participate - as long as Russia isn't participating, lol.

We should take a vote. Does anyone here believe that Russia will not be back competing in time for the 2026 Olympics?

 

[marbri]

I think the next question is does Canada have the money to fight this bogus decision?

They probably know the answer to that hence their balls putting out that statement.

I would imagine Skate Canada is seriously hurting after a cancelled worlds and all the covid years. Can't imagine a lot of income in the last 4 years.

 

[RoseRed]

“ For the sake of clarity Rule 353 para 4 in the ISU Special Regulations is not applicable in this case.”

Okay, this rule does not apply. What rule DOES apply? Please cite the applicable rule(s), quote the relevant language of the rule(s), and take us through how you are applying that language to the facts at hand.

I think that absent this kind of explanation, non-Russia countries might well conclude that they’d rather not participate in the Team Event in 2026.

And also, there's literally a document saying that it does apply to the Team Event, so... how do they explain that?

 

[her grace]

“Because I said so”

 

[Rukia]

And also, there's literally a document saying that it does apply to the Team Event, so... how do they explain that?

Because the decision was based on "we don't want to make Russia too mad" and also "we just kind of thought Canada would be chill about it since they didn't get a medal in the first place"

 

[skategal]

They probably know the answer to that hence their balls putting out that statement.

I would imagine Skate Canada is seriously hurting after a cancelled worlds and all the covid years. Can't imagine a lot of income in the last 4 years.

COC and even the Feds might get involved and pump money into this though.

I’d doubt Skate Canada would have to pay for an appeal themselves.

ISU just doesn’t want to piss off Russia and want CAS to be the bad guy (again.)

 

[Karen-W]

ISU just doesn’t want to piss off Russia and want CAS to be the bad guy (again.)

LOL - so true! CAS is the ultimate fall guy here, there and everywhere!

 

[caseyedwards]

LOL - so true! CAS is the ultimate fall guy here, there and everywhere!

Russia doesn’t even look like it’s going to ever be allowed to return! So why bother?!? It’s not like Canada United States will ever allow Russians to compete in any championships there! The war and eteri school is it!! United States and Canada will never ever compete with Russians again. So it’s like Russia or United States and Canada never ever all 3 again

 

[CantALoop]

Because the decision was based on "we don't want to make Russia too mad" and also "we just kind of thought Canada would be chill about it since they didn't get a medal in the first place"

Or they wanted to get all of the people who couldn’t cope with the thought of Roman being an Olympic bronze medalist out of their hair
Congrats Roman haterzz you got what you wanted

 

[kwanfan1818]

I thought there was talk about some sekret document with new TE rules that superseded the one in which rule 353 applied.

 

[Colonel Green]

They probably know the answer to that hence their balls putting out that statement.

I would imagine Skate Canada is seriously hurting after a cancelled worlds and all the covid years. Can't imagine a lot of income in the last 4 years.

Winning Olympic medals impacts how much funding Canadian skaters get, and the overall reputation of the program. There’s no way they would decline to appeal on financial grounds. Athletic organizations with way fewer resources make use of CAS regularly.

 

[kwanfan1818]

Conflict of interest between the Canadian signers on the IOC Council and Skate Canada and/or the COC? The politiks there could be sticky.

 

[pointbleu]

Gotta love Benoit Lavoie’s karma with Olympic events…

Conflict of interest between the Canadian signers on the IOC Council and Skate Canada and/or the COC? The politiks there could be sticky.

 

[Orm Irian]

They have adversely affected a team who had nothing to do with the incident. Seems more like they tried very hard not to adversely affect the team who was directly related to this incident.

Didn't Germany need to place eighth to retain funding for the next Olympic cycle? And Valieva's participation while doped put them in ninth? Meaning that her doping did material harm to a team that had nothing to do with it, and now the ISU is perpetuating that harm by refusing to disqualify the ROC team and move all teams up a rank, retroactively qualifying Germany for funding?

If it is, goodness, the German team should sue them alongside Canada.

 

[marbri]

Winning Olympic medals impacts how much funding Canadian skaters get, and the overall reputation of the program. There’s no way they would decline to appeal on financial grounds. Athletic organizations with way fewer resources make use of CAS regularly.

https://twitter.com/Devin_Heroux/status/1756063936338596002

COC has made a statement so they seem all in on appealing this.

 

[Karen-W]

Didn't Germany need to place eighth to retain funding for the next Olympic cycle? And Valieva's participation while doped put them in ninth? Meaning that her doping did material harm to a team that had nothing to do with it, and now the ISU is perpetuating that harm by refusing to disqualify the ROC team and move all teams up a rank, retroactively qualifying Germany for funding?

If it is, goodness, the German team should sue them alongside Canada.

Even if you remove Valieva's 10 points from the TE, no one is removing the ROC scores from the Pairs, Men or Dance portions of the TE. Germany was SOOOO far behind, points-wise, after the SP (in part because Hase/Seegert couldn't compete due to his positive Covid test at that time), that they could not have caught up to the team ahead of them in 8th (CZE) with the 1 extra point Schott would have earned if the ISU was correctly reallocating the Women's SP points. Additionally, CZE would have ALSO gained 1 extra point and, effectively, cancelled out GER's extra 1 point.

Nothing about not reallocating these points materially affects any other country EXCEPT Canada. No other team would have made the FS instead of ROC, and no other placements would have changed.

 

[airgelaal]

Are we having a competition for the worst excuse? First Valieva and strawberry cake, now ISU. Who's next?

 

[Allskate]

I thought there was talk about some sekret document with new TE rules that superseded the one in which rule 353 applied.

So secret that nobody can find it. Apparently, even the ISU can't find it. If they could, they'd be citing to it and linking to it. But, the document saying that Rule 353 does apply to the team event was found on the ISU website.

 

[Plusdinfo]

Have there ever been public petitions to the ISU? This seems like a time when something big has to be done to show the ISU how disgusted the public is.

 

[Vagabond]

Have there ever been public petitions to the ISU? This seems like a time when something big has to be done to show the ISU how disgusted the public is.

This would also be a good time for the IOC to tell the ISU to clean house or be prepared to be from the Olympic movement.

 

[coppertop1]

Wait a minute. Can someone translate from ISU language into human English?

"We can't math"

The Canadian Olympic Committee's response