Russian Olympic Committee coach Eteri Tutberidze talks to determine skater Kamila Valieva throughout a apply session on Feb. 12, 2022.
REUTERS
As Kamila Valieva’s Olympics destiny hangs within the stability with a Sunday listening to on the Russian determine skating star’s doping case, her coach insists the 15-year-old has executed nothing incorrect.
“We're completely positive that Kamila is harmless and clear,” Eteri Tutberidze advised Russian state tv on Saturday from Beijing.
Valieva helped the Russian Olympic Committee win a gold medal within the group occasion final week and is the heavy favourite for the ladies’s competitors that's set to start on Tuesday. But it surely stays to be seen whether or not she might be allowed to, after the Worldwide Testing Company confirmed on Friday that she had examined optimistic for the banned substance trimetazidine, a coronary heart medicine.
The pattern that examined optimistic was taken on the Russian nationwide championships in December, nevertheless it was greater than six weeks earlier than it was submitted for testing and flagged as optimistic this previous week. That put Valieva within the crosshairs within the midst of her first Olympics. Russia’s anti-doping company provisionally banned Valieva on Tuesday — a day after she and the ROC received the group determine skating occasion — however lifted the ban a day later following an enchantment.
The Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport will maintain a listening to Sunday, with a call on Valieva’s destiny anticipated to come back by Monday afternoon in Beijing. That might decide whether or not the ROC might be awarded the gold medals for the group occasion that it received final week.
“It’s unclear why an athlete with a suspected doping on Dec. 25 was cleared to compete on the Olympics,” Tutberidze advised Russian state tv. “Both it's an ill-fated confluence of circumstances, or it’s a really well-planned plan. I hope our officers is not going to abandon us and defend our rights and show our innocence.”
The ROC claimed in an announcement that Valieva has “repeatedly handed doping exams” earlier than and after the Dec. 25 take a look at that turned out to be optimistic.
Valieva, who turned the primary in ladies’s competitors to land a quad in Olympic historical past through the group occasion, has continued to apply for the person competitors. She has executed so with all eyes on her, although, and on Saturday was in tears after a shaky apply, the Related Press reported.
Tutberidze, who's teaching all three Russian ladies who're scheduled to compete within the ladies’s occasion, has additionally come below safety. She is reportedly identified for her demanding coaching strategies and for teaching skaters who've dominant however short-lived careers.
As a result of Valieva is below 16 years outdated, her optimistic take a look at for a banned substance has triggered an investigation into her “entourage,” which would come with Tutberidze.
“On one hand, they're skilled athletes, and they're competing at excessive stage competitions as different adults [do] and must be able to bear all their duty,” Margarita Pakhnotskaya, the previous deputy CEO of the Russian anti-doping company, advised the Related Press. “However alternatively, we all know that psychologically and mentally, they don't seem to be adults. And partly this duty must be shared with the senior people who find themselves of their nearest circle.”
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Valieva’s optimistic take a look at has stoked excessive tensions on the Olympics and rekindled questions on Russia’s doping points. The nation’s athletes are competing below the ROC designation — with out the Russian flag or anthem being concerned within the Video games — due to the state-sponsored doping scheme Russia allegedly ran through the 2014 Video games in Sochi.
Senior IOC member Dick Pound mentioned that, given the newest developments, Russia may want “a timeout” from the Olympics.
“The Russians don’t assist themselves as a result of they've been completely unrepentant,” Pound advised Reuters. “They received’t admit something, they enchantment each single choice. … I believe the strategy most likely has been too lenient to permit them to compete because the Russian Olympic Committee.”
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