In sport, Russia is not for amateurs – 02/02/2024 – Marina Izidro

In April 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin organized a ceremony in the Kremlin to honor the medalists of the Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, held two months earlier. One athlete received special attention: Kamila Valieva. After placing a medal in the lapel of the teenager’s light blue suit, Putin gave her a speech, stating that “such perfection could not have been achieved dishonestly.”

At the age of 15, the figure skating prodigy was the first on the planet to complete a quadruple jump at the Olympics and helped Russia win team gold. The following day, it was announced that Valieva’s test for trimetazidine, carried out weeks earlier, had returned a positive result. The substance to treat chest pain is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada).

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided that there would be no medals awarded in that event until the case was resolved. In the individual competition, under immense pressure, Valieva fell, left crying and finished in fourth place.

This week, the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) banned Valieva for four years. The punishment is retroactive to December 25, 2021, the date of the positive test, and therefore nullifies your results since then. The day after the CAS decision, the sport’s International Federation announced that Russia will lose the medal.

More than two years later, the United States will inherit the gold. Japan, silver. Interestingly, the federation may enter another legal battle. Instead of disqualifying the entire Russian team, he took away Valieva’s points and, by just one difference, Russia will take the bronze — and not Canada, which finished in fourth place.

In sport, Russia really is not for amateurs. They use sporting success as a political tool (they are not the only country to do this) and claim that the world does the same against them. In this case, Valieva was not to blame. The system drugged a child and perhaps destroyed her career.

In the last four Olympic Games, the country was punished by international federations, the IOC or Wada because of a systematic doping scheme. The suspension ended in 2022, but sanctions returned after Russia invaded Ukraine and extended to ally Belarus. In Paris-2024, a reduced group will compete as “neutral”, without a flag, uniform or anthem.

In addition to imposing sanctions on themselves, the Russians impose greater punishment on clean athletes, who are denied the most important moment of their careers: winning an Olympic medal and hearing their country’s anthem on the podium. The IOC celebrated the CAS decision and will organize a medal ceremony. It is one more case in the list of many similar cases caused by doping.

Valieva will turn 18 in April. According to international agencies, she has competed on the Russian national circuit and in shows across the country and would no longer be the phenomenon she was two years ago. Her suspension ends at the end of 2025, less than two months before the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, in Italy. In other words, if she qualifies, she will be able to compete.

Would banning all Russian athletes from international competitions be the solution? No, it would be unfair. Is finding a definitive solution possible? Difficult, since doping is often ahead of anti-doping. Will there come a time when a Russian athlete will enter a court, field, track without the shadow of distrust? I doubt.

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