Kamila, we are with you!
The text appeared on giant light boards around Moscow in February 2022. A little earlier, from the Beijing Olympics, news had spread to the world that the 15-year-old figure skating super talent Kamila Valieva had given a positive doping sample.
The talked about doping case has been thoroughly investigated until the last few days. In the verdict reported at the end of January, the international appeals court for sports CAS gave the now 17-year-old Valieva a four-year doping ban.
The result was a shock to Russian sports circles. The slogan that flashed on Moscow billboards two years ago was quickly forgotten as political decision-makers and sports bosses rushed to save their skins and use the scandal as a weapon.
President Vladimir Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the CAS decision politicized. The Russian Olympic Committee announced that war has been declared on Russian sports. Legendary figure skating coach Tatiana Tarasova banished the “evil pigs” who made the decision to the lowest hell. And so on.
In the midst of the commotion, the most important question has barely been asked. How is it possible that in addition to the banned trimetazidine, several questionable medicinal substances were in the body of a teenage athlete?
previously reported that three performance-enhancing substances were found in Valieva’s sample, which the World Anti-Doping Agency, Wada, has not yet added to the list of prohibited substances. In addition, Valieva’s defense said that in 2020 and 2021, the athlete used about 60 different medicinal or nutritional supplements.
Experienced sports doctor Harri Hakkarainen wondered in an interview with , on what basis did a 13–15-year-old athlete at the time use such a large amount of preparations.
Read more: A Finnish doctor flinches at the Russian colleagues’ listing of 13-15-year-old Kamila Valieva: “Has an illness been caused?”
A person who, according to all logic, should be able to answer this, has gotten there with amazing ease.
Decision-making power for the coach
Eteri Tutberidze, 49, is one of the world’s most successful figure skating coaches. The pilot, known as a strict and authoritarian figure, has told about his basic principles on many occasions.
If parents want their children to learn from Tutberidze, they have to trust the coach’s views and solutions one hundred percent. On the road to success, the coach is the highest authority.
Twelve-year-old Kamila Valieva also committed to this when she joined Tutberidze’s coaching group in the summer of 2018. Under Tutberidze’s watchful eye, the artistic and technically extremely skilled skater became the most talked about name in Russian figure skating.
So it’s no wonder that when Valieva’s doping case became global news at the Beijing 2022 Olympics, questioning eyes were turned towards coach Tutberidze.
The answer was complete silence for a long time, until in the fall of 2023, Tutberidze gave a surprising interview Leonid Slutsky in the program. Tutberidze washed his hands of Valieva’s fate and let it be understood that the skater was too careless about his eating.
– Kamila told me that at the Russian championships (where she gave a positive doping sample), she ate ice cream offered by a volunteer and drank tea offered by a masseuse. I couldn’t believe his naivety. We try to teach them, but… Tutberidze said.
When CAS announced his four-year doping ban, Tutberidze again dissociated himself from everything that happened on his Instagram page. He emphasized that he still does not know how the banned substance ended up in the athlete’s body.
The exits have been widely criticized. According to Russian journalists familiar with Valieva’s case, Tutberidze’s insinuations about Valieva’s carelessness at least did not strengthen the athlete’s otherwise flimsy defense in the CAS doping trial.
It certainly seems strange that Tutberidze, whose team swears by total dedication and comprehensive top-level sports, has no idea about the preparations and nutrition used by his star athlete.
Coaching team in the reasons
Tutberidze’s activities also came up in the proceedings of the CAS.
The World Anti-Doping Agency Wada highlighted Tutberidze’s statements from 2019. At the time, the star coach told a journalist To Vladimir Pozner that he was sorry that Wada added meldonium, a heart drug used by figure skaters, to the list of banned substances.
– We had to find some new substance, because athletes need vitamins to help them recover anyway, Tutberidze said at the time.
Doubts have been raised equally by the doctor who worked with Valieva and Russia’s top skaters Filip Švetsky background. The doctor was suspended for three years when equipment used for blood exchange was found in the possession of Russian rowers in 2007.
Švetski has emphasized that the work with Valieva was not only his responsibility. The controversial doctor has pushed the blame on the necks of his colleagues by saying that he had not approved the supplements and other preparations used by Valieva.
Tutberidze’s coaching group has been described as a family, for which the coaches are ready to do anything. However, when the 15-year-old athlete got into the worst grind of his life, a sad picture emerged.
Valiyeva was left to face the consequences alone.
Tutberidze has managed to get through the situation with rare success. He is allowed to tell his own version of events in public, but there is no success coach except for a few critical articles just challenged.
At the moment, Russian television viewers can follow the figure skating coach’s new conquest of territory, when he acts as a presenter in the “Big Girls” reality series about weight loss.
Kamila Valieva’s doping case has brought forth countless opinions, accusations and theories. Sports circles are unanimous only that the career of one of the most talented skaters of all time was destroyed much too early.
Nobody just wants to take responsibility for it.