The 17-year-old Russian is banned for four years – but what is she really? Perpetrator or victim?
At least in Russia, Kamila Valiyeva is still running. Pictured at a competition in November 2023.
Imago
It could have been one of the highlights of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The Russian Kamila Waliyeva, who was only 15 years old at the time, glided across the ice in apparent weightlessness. With her grace, lightness and youthful joy, she gave the sport back for a moment the purity and carefreeness that it likes to claim as its own.
The Beijing Games were only a few days old. And yet they already experienced a moment that would shape them in retrospect: the free skate of the team figure skating competition. Valiyeva’s performance was worth its weight in gold for the Russian team. The Russian joy and international recognition lasted two days before it turned into the opposite.
Immediately before the actual award ceremony it was said: stop, abort the exercise. The medal presentation was postponed indefinitely without giving any reasons. Speculation about the reasons quickly grew. Mark Adams, spokesman for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said at the daily media briefing in the evening that the medal presentation had to be postponed due to “legal complications”. He couldn’t say anything more about it at the moment.
Rumors quickly emerged that the reason for this was a positive doping test. Namely in the Russian team, in the delegation that had to compete in Beijing without an anthem, flag and nationality designation because of the state-orchestrated doping surrounding the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.
A heart drug in the body of a 15-year-old
It soon became clear: it was actually about doping. And it also leaked out who the positive result affected: Kamila Valiyeva, the child prodigy, is said to have tested positive for the heart drug trimetazidine at the national championships in St. Petersburg in December. Because the runner was still a minor, she was actually protected by minors – her name should not have been revealed. Why did it leak anyway? Because of a breakdown or maybe even on purpose? To this day, all of this is part of the speculation surrounding the extraordinary case.
The International Sports Tribunal (TAS) decided at a hastily convened meeting that the figure skater could remain in the competition for the time being. Too many questions remained unanswered. How did the cardiovascular agent, which improves oxygen uptake in the blood, energy utilization and carbohydrate metabolism, get into the blood of the perfectly healthy athlete? Why did it take so long for the positive results to be reported?
Broke under pressure: Russian Kamila Valiyeva’s botched free skate at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.
Youtube
Under this shadow, Valiyeva competed in the individual competition a week later as the big favorite and failed spectacularly. She stumbled several times and put her hand on the ice. She finished the competition in fourth place and left the ice in tears. According to the New York Times, lip readers claim to have recognized how her controversial trainer Eteri Tutberidze whispered to her: “Why did you abandon us? Why didn’t you fight? Explain to me why?”
The Russian anti-doping agency Rusada, which was responsible for sanctioning the positive doping test in St. Petersburg, refrained from doing so, saying that the young runner could not be held responsible for the positive doping test. Under pressure from the Americans, the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) initiated proceedings at the sports tribunal in Lausanne.
What is Kamila Valiyeva really: perpetrator or victim?
Dmitry Golubovich / Imago
Now on Monday, Wada retroactively banned Valiyeva for four years and canceled all of the results she had achieved since the day of the positive test. The International Skating Union then rewrote the rankings for the team competition in Beijing. Gold now goes to the USA, silver to Japan. Without the result of their young star, the Russians still have bronze.
Declared war on Russian sport
The last medals from the Beijing Games appear to have been awarded almost two years after the Olympic flame went out. But the wrangling over Kamila Valiyeva’s guilt and innocence may not end there. The Russian Olympic Committee, which is currently suspended by the IOC over the annexation of Ukrainian territories, wrote in a media release that war had been declared on Russian sport. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov spoke on Tuesday of a politically motivated verdict and announced that the legal fight would continue. “For us, the runners will always remain Olympic champions, no matter what decisions, even unjust ones, are made.”
In two years, just in time for the next Winter Games in Milan, Kamila Valiyeva will be eligible to compete again. Until then, what will be left of the magic of her freestyle in Beijing? A battle that has now lasted two years over the guilt and innocence of a young athlete who was more of a child than a woman at the time. And a career that will forever be overshadowed by a flaw.
Ernst König, the director of Swiss Sport Integrity, says: “I only see losers in the whole matter. First and foremost, it is tragic when such a young athlete becomes a pawn in world politics. It shows that the protection of minors cannot be given high priority.” At the same time, König also says that just because the athletes are underage, they cannot move outside the applicable rules. The whole thing is a topic that definitely needs to be discussed in more depth.