Nothing fun about IOC funhouse
Russian skater’s failed doping test has thrown Games into legal and diplomatic chaos
BEIJING If there’s anything better than the Olympics, it’s the Olympics plus lawyers and judges, so that’s the good news out of the Kamila Valieva fiasco at the Beijing Olympics. Just kidding: There isn’t any good news. There is just Russia trying to get away with something, a journey into the International Olympic Committee’s bureaucratic anti-doping hell, and a 15-year-old girl who can’t win, not really, even if she does. None of this is great.
But that’s where we are. The International Testing Agency explained Friday that the Russian figure skater had tested positive for a banned substance in late December, but that the sample only came back after Valieva had starred in a gold-medal performance in the team figure skating competition in Beijing. Since then, she has been suspended by Russia’s anti-doping agency, and then unsuspended. She is due to compete again in four days, and suddenly the Games have been thrown into legal and diplomatic chaos.
“The question is, well, what’s the source of this pretty potent performance enhancer, in a 15-year-old?” says Travis Tygart, the CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. “Somebody had to be providing it to her, and it makes all the sense in the world for a sports system, and a state system, that has recent evidence of intentional cheating and coverups to have provided it to her. The positive test speaks for itself.
“We’ll wait to see what the CAS decision looks like. But we shouldn’t take much from the Russians lifting (the suspension). Because of course they did.”
Here’s the basic timeline. Valieva provided a sample during the Russian championships on Christmas Day. Russia does not have an accredited anti-doping lab because Russia turned its accredited antidoping lab into an FSB-adjacent urine-smuggling operation during the Sochi Olympics, as part of a wholesale corruption of the Russian Olympic system. Maybe you heard about it.
So the sample was sent to Stockholm. In theory, this should happen straightaway, and then the lab is supposed to process samples within 10 days.
The sample does not come back. As Tygart notes, none of the International Skating Union, the World Anti-Doping Agency, or the International Testing Agency seem to notice a missing sample of a highprofile Olympic competitor, and do not find a way to expedite the sample. They just let her skate.
“That failure,” he says, “is catastrophic.”
So, this week …
Russia wins Olympic gold in the team figure skating event Monday. Valieva skates beautifully, brilliantly, leaving the world gasping. She is magnificent, one of one.
The sample comes back Tuesday, glowing like a cellphone in the dark, trimetazidine, a heart drug that is not recommended for minors. The medal ceremony is delayed. RUSADA, which is accredited but not considered a highly credible operation, issues the obligatory suspension.
On Wednesday, Valieva appeals to the RUSADA disciplinary anti-doping committee, which one presumes is not wholly independent of the country’s anti-doping regulator, which one presumes is not wholly independent of the country’s leadership, which as mentioned, had previously run and defended a state-sponsored doping program at the Olympics, Paralympics, World University Games, and more.
Hold onto your hats: RUSADA’s disciplinary committee rescinds the suspension, despite the fact that, while there are exceptions for under-18 athletes in terms of punishment for doping, there are no exceptions on provisional suspensions. You are supposed to be sidelined until it’s resolved. Valieva shows up at practice. Two days of increasing speculation follow and, finally, the ITA explains what happened. All of this is happening, by the way, without a confirmatory B sample.
So now we enter the legal funhouse, except it isn’t any fun. The IOC is appealing the decision by RUSADA to lift the suspension with the Court of Arbitration for Sport. That decision will determine whether Valieva can continue to skate in the individual event starting Tuesday. WADA has joined in, saying the Code has not been applied correctly. Then comes another question for CAS, in which the actual doping case is heard. That one could drag on. Russia, in a statement, indicated it will fight.
“The athlete repeatedly passed doping tests before and after December 25, 2021, including already in Beijing during the figure skating tournament,” the statement said, in part.
Oh, did she? She didn’t test positive before, and hasn’t since? Well, that’s super. It’s not how this works at all, but it’s super.
“Given that the athlete’s positive doping test was not taken during the Olympic Games, the athlete’s results and team competition results during the Olympic Games are not subject to automatic review,” the Russian statement read.
Some may disagree with that, but we’ll see. This all means the following scenarios are on the table.
One, Valieva wins the CAS appeal, wins the individual gold, and eight years after sneaking a generation of dirty athletes into the Sochi Games, Russia wins two medals with an athlete who had a positive test right out in the open. It hangs over her forever.
Two, Valieva loses the appeal on her RUSADA suspension, doesn’t skate on Tuesday, but wins the fight over the doping test, meaning she should have been allowed to skate.
Three, she is convicted of a doping violation, a 15-year-old betrayed by her country, and goes home without a medal.
It is a nightmare. The IOC cannot be trusted to oversee a competent and honest anti-doping system, especially with Russia, and the independence of the parties fighting the Valieva case could be illusory: The IOC gave 34 Russian athletes lifetime bans before Pyeongchang, but they were overturned by the CAS because you’re not allowed to give lifetime bans. You also can’t trust Russia to be an honest broker, ever. There is no good outcome here, there are just bad consequences.
“Every whistleblower, former doper, and current athlete we have talked to have told us you’re part of the Russian system or you’re out of the system, and being part of the system means you may be asked to dope,” said Rob Koehler, the director-general of Global Athlete, a prominent athlete advocacy organization.
“WADA, the IOC and CAS didn’t ban the Russian team for four years, so there has been no need or desire for cultural change. Shame on them all.”
Yeah, that’s it, more or less. That’s where we’re at.