Valieva still in limbo

BEIJING • The Russian coach of the 15-year-old figure skater embroiled in an Olympic doping scandal broke her silence to defend Kamila Valieva yesterday, while the sport's highest court said it would hold a hearing on the athlete's Winter Games future today.

Coach Eteri Tutberidze said she was certain Valieva was "clean and innocent" in an interview with Russian state television after hugging her figure-skating prodigy, who trained again at the rink next to the Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing yesterday afternoon.

Valieva's future at the Games will be decided by tomorrow afternoon, after a hearing by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) today, it said in a statement.

Her participation in the Olympics hangs in the balance after the stunning revelation that she had tested positive for a banned heart drug Trimetazidine before winning the team event on Monday, but it took more than six weeks before that positive result was reported.

It is believed that the drug can improve physical efficiency, especially in the case of endurance sports.

China's Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Sun Yang was suspended in 2014 after testing positive for the drug.

Valieva is due to compete again on Tuesday in the women's individual event.

She is one of the youngest athletes ever to have a positive test revealed at the Olympics, in a case that has prompted outrage from fans, athletes and anti-doping advocates around the world.

Earlier, Olympic officials said they would welcome an anti-doping investigation into the Russian doctors, coaches and family members in Valieva's entourage.

Many have questioned the role of the adults around the teenage skater and the continuing scourge of Russian doping in international sports.

Senior International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Dick Pound told Reuters that Russia may need an Olympic "timeout" after the latest doping scandal.

He added: "If they are absolutely incorrigible... We could say we can help you. You got a problem... Take a time out for one or two, or three Olympic Games until you get this under control."

The Kremlin - separately preoccupied with Western diplomatic wrath over a troop build-up near Ukraine - calls Valieva's case a "misunderstanding".

Rachael Denhollander, the first woman to publicly accuse former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar of sexual abuse, told Reuters the the failed drug test was a reminder of how vulnerable young athletes remain.

"A child does not make a choice to take those kinds of medications unless they're given to her by somebody who's in authority," she told Reuters.

"What we're really seeing is the incredible damage that has come yet again to a child who has been under the control of adults who value her, not for who she is, but for what she can produce for them."

In a thread on Instagram, Adam Rippon, a bronze medalist at the 2018 Olympics who now coaches the United States Olympian Mariah Bell, criticised everyone from the IOC to the adults around Valieva and anyone who might have put Valieva's "sport performance ahead of her health and well-being".

Tutberidze is known for raising a generation of Russian skaters with stellar but ephemeral careers. Her skaters are among the only women in the world who can successfully land quadruple jumps.

On Saturday, she added her voice to the growing cries from Russian officials over the delay in the figure skater receiving her positive drug test result.

More than six weeks went by between Valieva's sample being taken on Dec 25 and Feb 8 when she was notified by a lab in Stockholm, Sweden that she had tested positive for the banned heart medication.

"It's unclear why an athlete with a suspected doping on Dec 25 was cleared to compete at the Olympics," Tutberidze told Russian state television.

"Either it is an ill-fated confluence of circumstances, or it's a very well-planned plan.

"I hope our officials will not abandon us and defend our rights and prove our innocence."

The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), the Russian figure skating federation and Russian anti-doping agency Rusada have also questioned the timeline.

The Doping Control Laboratory in Karolinska University Hospital, in Stockholm, is accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada).

Rusada released a statement saying the laboratory had cited a spike in Covid-19, which impacted staff and quarantine rules, as the reason for the delay.

The lab's director Anton Pohanka declined to comment.

Yesterday, the IOC said the delay was a question for Wada, which could not be immediately contacted by Reuters.

Test results during the Games take between 24-72 hours for a result, depending on the kind of test, but the process during the Olympics is expedited given the urgent need for quick results with many athletes competing in several events.

While a six-week delay is unusual, there could be mitigating factors, said Jean-Pierre Verdy, the former director of testing at the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD), who helped bust several top names on the Tour de France.

Verdy told Reuters: "Between a sample's delivery time, added to the analysis time and re-analysis time to confirm the presence of a specific substance, and the fact that you have to send the screenings to several labs to get external confirmation - and some labs don't have that kind of experience - the delays can be long."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, NYTIMES, REUTERS