 |
| NBC / YouTube Screenshot |
“We all want clean sport.” It has been the unofficial rallying cry of many of figure skating’s top athletes since Kamila Valieva’s supposed “doping scandal” conveniently erupted at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. For individuals with one ounce of truth-seeking ability, there is a serious flaw in their logic, rhetoric, and what it suggests is troubling.
[This is an opinion piece/analysis that uses fact checking to prove its point.]
There was a clean competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics and every international event involving Kamila Valieva. That cannot even begin to be argued. You cannot have it both ways. If you think that a positive drug test means something, then so does a negative test. The irrefutable truth is that Valieva tested negative for any WADA-prohibited drugs before and after the positive result for two billionths of a gram of trimetazidine (TMZ). Valieva was clean.
When the case for Kamila Valieva to compete at the 2022 Winter Olympics was adjudicated by CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport), the tribunal did not buy WADA’s COVID-fueled excuse for the delay in testing results. The same test that took WADA 40 days to produce - double the time it is supposed to take - and no one is supposed to find suspicious. Of course, no one in mainstream media nor figure skating Twitter wants to acknowledge that when discussing the controversy.
Clean Competition. Clean Losses.
I regress, though. The point is that Kamila Valieva has never tested positive for a banned substance at an international competition, including the Olympics. Under no theoretical circumstance did any alleged doping occur when Valieva dominated the Grand Prix circuit, won Europeans and took the top spot representing Russian women in the Olympic Team Event. The only athletes even theoretically impacted by the allegations of doping have been Valieva’s Russian teammates.
No competitor from another country can claim that a lack of “clean sport” kept them from winning in the women’s individual event in figure skating. The test result for Kamila Valieva came from the 2022 Russian Nationals. For the uninitiated, that is a competition solely between Russian athletes. This veiled attempt to hint that doping is the reason for other athletes’ failure to dominate the world stage is ludicrous.
If you play by their rules alone, it is illogical. Kamila Valieva beat the elite representation of every other country, fair and square. The same goes for Valieva’s teammates, Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova. Valieva’s training mates have never tested positive for any banned substance. However, that has not stopped many from arguing all Russians should be lumped together and discriminated against - banned from competing forever.
Russophobia Bears Its Ugly Teeth
In and of itself, this outcry shows you the Russophobic nature of those reactions. There was an undeniably clean Olympic competition, yet some have implied Valieva’s presence impeded that goal despite the highest court in sport (CAS) saying it did not. So, wait. Valieva tested clean in every international competition, including the Olympics, and a lack of “clean sport” cost non-Russian athletes what again? Oh, that’s right. Nothing.
Many little-publicized facts cast tremendous doubts on the credulity of Kamila Valieva’s unconfirmed positive test result, including the possibility of unintended contamination. A doping test is not confirmed until the B Sample is tested or refused to be tested. Of course, a confirmed test does not mean that an athlete knowingly consumed a prohibited substance.
In the case of US swimmer Madisyn Cox, Cox proved that her positive doping test for TMZ was caused by vitamins contaminated during manufacturing, per Swim Swam. The same thing also happened to US pairs skater, Jessica Calalang, who was innocently exposed to a WADA-prohibited substance, per The AP. Hence, the idea that a positive drug test is the end of the story is false. Finding DNA at a crime scene does not tell you anything until you consider the context. The same applies to Kamila Valieva’s case.
USADA Needs To Focus On USADA
All told, you have a PR (propaganda relations) campaign. It is not one seeking to shed light on the truth. It slithers in speculation, threatening reputations through a trial in the court of public opinion where the standard for truth is abysmally low. The only rule is guilty until proven innocent. If it is on Twitter, it must be true.
Or because the CEO of USADA claims that it is so to CNN, it must be correct? Right? It is the opinion of this author that the theories placed forth by USADA’s CEO are indicative of Russophobia. WADA and the IOC failed to convince CAS to keep Kamila Valieva from competing at the 2022 Winter Olympics despite presenting all of their “evidence.” They need to get over it.
Related: Fact Check - Can Russian Figure Skater Daria Usacheva Skate Anymore?
Instead of focusing on why Russians are succeeding, how about taking a long look in the mirror about why the USA is struggling? The USA makes figure skating a sport for the elite, and not much has changed in its snooty politics since Tonya Harding exposed its prejudice in the 1990s.
The Hypocrisy Is Real
To compete in figure skating in the USA costs big money, which stresses a parent and their pocketbook until it screams. Figure skating is not an affordable or accessible sport for the average American. The USA could work to fix this and many of its other problems before pointing a finger elsewhere. It would stay busy for a long time.
Related: Welcome To Figure Skating Factory
Instead of acknowledging it has work to do in fostering the next generation of female figure skaters, it is trying to tear down the only federation producing evolving talent that masterfully combines an artist’s touch with the equal measure of a competitive technician’s skill. The 2022 individual Olympic gold medalist Anna Shcherbakova and her teammate, Kamila Valieva, are exemplary proof of this.
Rather than celebrating women’s figure skating finally moving forward after decades stuck in a regrettable rut, outsiders to Russia work to bring them down and cast aspersions on their accomplishments with claims of cheating either through “mushroomed” scores or “doping.” The essential goal here is to tear them down if you cannot beat them. The first move was for rival federations to cry foul about doping.
The Final Word
CAS, the highest court in the land of sport (in other words, the Supreme Court of Sport), ruled against WADA and the IOC. They did so in a scathing report that questioned the delayed timing of WADA’s test result (CAS Decision, Page 38, Point 211).
They also considered the minuscule amount of TMZ found in Kamila Valieva’s sample, acknowledged the chance for contamination (CAS Decision Page 37, Point 206). Oh, and there is the bonafide fact that TMZ would not help a figure skater’s performance, per Popular Science. It would hurt it. This was testified to by an expert on behalf of Kamila Valieva.
Not one doctor has provided evidence to the contrary, and would they not do so if they could? Instead, USADA reps have shamefully made claims that ignore this very issue to mouthpiece - CNN. Sorry to Polina Edmunds and the YouTube channel(s) that should not be named, but you need to believe and trust in science. I have not read one doctor state that TMZ would be an advantage instead quite the contrary. WADA even had to downgrade it from being a stimulant in 2015, per NBC.
A published research paper (source), “The Inclusion in WADA Prohibited List Is Not Always Supported by Scientific Evidence: A Narrative Review,” questions TMZ and several other prohibited substances’ impact on athletic performance. A US heart expert has independently confirmed that TMZ does nothing to boost performance.
Dr. Benjamin J. Levine told the NY Times it would harm it. But please, do not be fooled by the facts or doctors. Support “clean sport” because there is no such thing as “cleanly losing gracefully” anymore.
Add your comment