Valieva too good to need drugs, say Russians

A MEMBER of Kamila Valieva’s team has declared the Russian is too talented to need drugs ahead of today’s court verdict that will determine if the skating sensation is kicked out of Beijing 2022. The 15-year-old is sweating on the findings of a Court of Arbitration for Sport panel, who were due to hear her case at 8.30pm local time yesterday. It follows her failed test for a banned heart drug at her national championships last December but which bizarrely was not reported by anti-doping authorities until last Tuesday, the day after she inspired Russia to team gold. If CAS rule against her, the teenager will be suspended and unable to contest the individual discipline tomorrow, for which she is the strong favourite. Amid the international attention generated by the scandal, her choreographer Alexey Zheleznyakov was asked on social media how Valieva came to test positive for trimetazidine at Christmas. He said: ‘I’m not a god, I have no idea, there are a lot of options, but I’m sure of one thing: Kami doesn’t touch anything forbidden in life, with her talent it’s not necessary.’ With scrutiny falling on Valieva’s support network, including her formidable coach Eteri Tutberidze, the International Olympic Committee yesterday put pressure on the World Anti-Doping Agency to formally investigate her entourage. WADA have since confirmed they will. IOC spokesman Mark Adams said: ‘This is a constantly moving target, and we are continuing to work on this. We have an entourage commission and we want WADA to investigate the entourage in this case.’