When a drug that is usually given to elderly patients with heart problems is detected in the body of a 15-year-old athlete, something must be amiss.
And not all national health authorities have even approved the use of the active ingredient trimetazidine in the first place. The most common side effects cited are drowsiness, headaches, rashes, indigestion, and loss of strength.
But these are merely details. Looking at the bigger picture, the ongoing alleged doping case of figure skater Kamila Valieva at the Beijing Winter Olympics is just the latest of many episodes involving Russia and doping.
Revelations about systematic, state-controlled doping surrounding the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi made by whistleblowers Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov and middle-distance runner Yulia Stepanova helped get Russian athletes banned from international competition. The ban imposed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) remains in force in Beijing, but still the Russian sporting authorities don’t seem to have learned their lesson.
Andreas Sten-Ziemons
Sanctions against Russia a joke
Should the doping allegations against Valieva be confirmed and it be found that the athlete herself was without blame, it will be time to take a harder line.
A real and all-inclusive Olympic ban for all athletes (and officials) from Russia, preferably for several Olympic Games, as ex-WADA boss Richard Pound has suggested, would be beneficial – even though it would be very painful, especially for the athletes.
Because let’s be honest: Russia’s current Olympic ban has not led to a rethink and amounts to a bad joke.
Sure, Tchaikovsky may be played at medal ceremonies instead of the Russian national anthem. The flag with the logo of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) is hoisted instead of the Russian flag. But it is athletes from Russia who stand on the podium. They take the medals home to Russia. Their officially “neutral” sports gear is adorned with the “red, white, and blue” of the Russian flag, which is officially banned at the Olympics.
Even President Vladimir Putin attended the opening ceremony. He, like other official representatives of Russia is actually banned by the IOC. However, this formal hurdle was easily circumvented through a personal invitation to Putin from China’s head of state, Xi Jinping. That’s symptomatic of a ban so feeble that it has no impact whatsoever.
Unfair to Valiyeva
What is tragic about the current case is that the victim, Kamila Valieva, is a minor.
It is on her back that the larger battle is now being fought. This is unfair, she trained hard for years to compete in Beijing. Considering the rapid decline of Russia’s top skaters in recent years – most having risen to the top at a very young age before very quickly and then disappearing from view – this could be her only Olympic Games.
She will be allowed to compete in women’s singles in Beijing, but she is under massive pressure and observation, which she won’t have needed. At the same time, Valieva knows that she may soon have to give up her medal(s) again, and that she could then be banned for some time.
That’s not to mention the mysterious heart medication that was apparently in her bloodstream, which is another of many reasons why one would not want to be in her shoes.
This article was translated from German.
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