I have hardly read anything about the Valieva case. I didn’t do it by choice, because I don’t want to feed everything around, the search for sensationalism of some newspapers, which sometimes comes to looting. Or even indignation, only where and when it suits. I have not read any official document and I do not know the doping legislation to know for sure what it prescribes. But I know enough other laws, and I know that it is often possible to find a way around them, and that those who are really skilled and unscrupulous do it.
As far as I’m concerned, what is happening is yet another proof that sport is rotten, sport in general and figure skating in particular, and honestly I would have gladly done without it.
Valieva is only 15 years old, and it is right to protect her. I doubt that she has much decision-making power over her life, be it the way she train or her diet. I do not know, these are investigations that must be done by the competent authorities, and that I hope they will be done, but it is quite easy for me to imagine that someone from her technical staff provided her with a product and told her it was a dietary supplement, while it was a doping product. I could search for the product name, but I don’t care. Knowing what really happened, with what product, what the effects are, at what moment, and with the collaboration of whom, are all things that must be established by others, but that do not change my ideas.
It is not for me to name names or say that the responsibility lies with one person or the entire staff, that will have to be said by the investigations. And investigations must go on until all those responsible have been discovered, and these people must be prevented from ever setting foot on an ice rink or any other sports facility. But understanding how and when the skater got doped is not the only problem. Here there is a great responsibility also on the part of those who should have stopped her before and did not.
If the test dates back to six weeks ago, not later than a month ago Valieva should have been stopped, and Russia – no, I don’t care which fake nation Russian athletes compete under – should have been able to send another skater. It has not been done and, any decision will be made, two competitions, the Team Event and the Women’s, have been tainted. The athletes, all of them, deserved better.
And Valieva? Valieva is 15 years old. I agree, she needs to be protected. But does the decision to allow her to compete protect her? And it you protect other athletes? Protecting Valieva means giving her a suspension limited in time and not for life, allowing her to return to skating in the future, if there are no other problems. Allowing her to compete now means slapping all the skaters (not just Women) who have always competed honestly. What are their efforts, sometimes even injuries, if it is possible to cheat and not pay the consequences? But the worst part is that this opens a way. This decision tells everyone that, as long as you are a minor, you can be allowed to cheat. Not disqualifying Valieva doesn’t mean protecting her. It means telling all the coaches around the world that they can doping their athletes while they are young, because even if there will be permanent consequences in their life, in the meantime they have won, and victory comes first.
I really wish these people that life treats them with the same respect they are showing towards athletes.
