Russian figure skating gold medal ceremony on hold after ‘one team member tests positive for drugs’

A teenage Russian figure skater has tested positive for a banned drug, after the ceremony to present her and her team mates with their Olympic gold medals was postponed for unexplained legal reasons, Russian media has reported.

Newspapers RBC and Kommersant said 15-year-old Kamila Valieva had tested positive for Trimetazidine, which is typically used to treat chest pain but is listed as a prohibited substance by the world anti-doping body.

The news broke late at night in Beijing, where Valieva was part of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) ensemble that won the figure skating team event on Monday coming ahead of the United States and Japan.

The teenager delivered one of the highlights of the Beijing Games so far when she landed the first quadruple jumps by a woman in Olympic competition. She was one of four ROC skaters who did not appear at their practice sessions on Wednesday. 

Trimetazidine, or TMZ, works by increasing blood flow to the heart and limiting rapid swings in blood pressure. The drug is not approved for use in the United States.

According to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, TMZ can be used by athletes to improve their performance, especially in endurance sports. It has been on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) list of prohibited substances since January 2014.

Former Russian pairs skater Tatiana Volosozhar, who won two gold medals at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, offered words of support for Valieva on social media, calling for the use of the Russian hashtag #Iwillneverbelieve to send the teenager support.

Her post was ‘liked’ on Instagram by Valieva herself.

Newspapers RBC and Kommersant said 15-year-old Kamila Valieva had tested positive for Trimetazidine, which is typically used to treat chest pain. Pictured: Valieva of Team Russia skates during the Women Single Skating Free Skating Team Event on day three of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic

Pictured: Kamila Valieva of Team Russia (front row, 2nd L) reacts with her teammates following her skate in the Women Single Skating Free Skating Team Event on day three of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games at Capital Indoor Stadium on February 7, 2022 in Beijing, China

Prominent journalist Vasily Konov, deputy general producer at Russian sports channel Match-TV, said without citing sources that the sample in question had been taken two months ago.

‘The drug trimetazidine does not help an athlete in any way. At all. It was found in one single sample in December. A minuscule amount. Nothing in her samples before or since,’ he wrote on social media.

‘There is no doping in the conventional sense. No! This cardiac drug has no impact on … performance. Now leave Kamila in peace.’

Russia has acknowledged some shortcomings in its implementation of anti-doping rules but denies running a state-sponsored doping programme.

Its athletes are competing at the Beijing Games without their flag and national anthem, because of sanctions against Russia for previous violations. 

The Russian figure skaters who won the team event at the Beijing Olympics on Monday have still not received their gold medals, with media reports on Wednesday saying one had returned a positive drug test. 

Under Olympic rules, performance-enhancing drugs attract a different penalty to those for recreational use. 

The International Olympic Committee had delayed the medal ceremony, which had been due to take place on Tuesday night, citing a ‘legal issue’.

Earlier, the Inside The Games website had reported that the issue refers to a positive drugs test and said the international doping authorities were involved.  

But representatives for the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) have strongly denied any problems with drug tests on its skaters before Beijing.    

The IOC, International Skating Union and the international agency in charge of drugs testing during the Games all declined to comment on media reports that the delay was caused by a positive drug test.

The Russian Sports Ministry said it was premature to comment on media reports about the reason for the postponement. 

Newspapers RBC and Kommersant said 15-year-old Kamila Valieva had tested positive for Trimetazidine, which is typically used to treat chest pain. Pictured: Valieva of Team Russia skates during the Women Single Skating Free Skating Team Event on day three of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic

Gold medalists Kamila Valieva, Anastasia Mishina, Aleksandr Galliamov, Victoria Sanitsina, Nikita Katsalapov, Mark Kondratiuk of Team ROC celebrate during the Team Event flower ceremony at the Beijing Winter Olympics on Monday. The medal ceremony has been delayed

Questions were raised after four Russian skaters, including Valieva, did not attend training on Wednesday. 

The medal ceremony had initially been moved to Tuesday evening at 9pm local time from Monday before being postponed indefinitely. 

‘A situation arose at short notice that requires legal consultation,’ International Olympic Committee (IOC) spokesperson Mark Adams said.

‘You can bet your bottom dollar we are doing everything that this situation can be resolved as soon as possible. I cannot give you any more details but we will do our utmost.’

Adams said the ceremony would take place as soon as possible. 

Valieva was one of the four ROC athletes, along with pairs dancers Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov, and Mark Kondratiuk, who did not appear at their practice sessions on Wednesday. It was unclear at the time why.

Kondratiuk also represented the ROC team and competed in Tuesday’s individual short programme. He advanced to the finals scheduled on Thursday.

In the competition, Valieva scored 178.92 points, taking the top prize in the women’s free skate event, which closed the team competition.

Team ROC ended the team competition with a total of 74 points to take the gold. 

The ROC team featured women’s singles skater Valieva, Mark Kondratyuk in the men’s, Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov in the pairs, and Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov in the ice dance.  

The only ROC skaters to train were team ice dancers Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov.  

Valieva of Russian Olympic Committee performs during the Women Single Skating

But Russian Figure Skating Federation spokesperson Olga Yermolina told the country’s official state news agency TASS that the organisation is ‘waiting for official information on this issue’.  

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), as part of a policy change last year, reduced its bans for recreational drugs so that athletes who test positive out of competition would be banned for one to three months instead of two years.

According to WADA, for a substance to be on its prohibited list it must meet any two of the following criteria: performance enhancement, danger to an athlete´s health, and a violation of the spirit of sport.

Calls to remove marijuana from WADA’s list of in-competition banned substances have become more frequent, and many athletes and experts have openly advocated for legalisation.

Tatyana Tarasova, one of Russia’s most successful coaches and national figure skating team adviser, rejected claims that a problem with a drugs test had caused the problems. 

‘This cannot be. They can nod at us, but we are all clean,’ she said.    

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier they would wait for official statements before commenting.

‘As of now, we heard no official statements and let us judge based on them, because we are currently based on media reports only,’ Peskov told a daily news briefing.

‘We should either wait for explanations from sports officials, including our sports officials, or from the IOC.’

If any athlete and team were disqualified, an appeal would likely follow to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Canada placed fourth and would be in line to be upgraded. 

Gold medalists Kamila Valieva, Anastasia Mishina, Aleksandr Galliamov, Victoria Sanitsina, Nikita Katsalapov, Mark Kondratiuk of Team Russia celebrate during the Team Event flower ceremony

Technically, Russia is banned from competing in international sporting events until December 2022 over mass doping dating back to the 2014 Sochi Winter Games. 

But Russian athletes are still able to compete but only as neutral athletes or ‘Olympic Athletes from Russia’ (OAR) and represent the ROC to comply with those sanctions.

An initial punishment lasting for four years was imposed on Russia in 2020 by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which saw them barred from events including the Tokyo Games and Paralympics as well as the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The ban was then reduced to two years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), a move which was greeted with a fierce backlash.

It was unanimously found by CAS that Russia had not been in compliance with anti-doping rules and regulations. 

Team USA figure skaters enjoyed the flower ceremony after winning the silver medal for the mixed team event

Bronze medalists from Japan during the victory ceremony for the figure skating mixed team competition during the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games on Monday 

The panel said it ‘considered matters of proportionality and, in particular, the need to effect cultural change and encourage the next generation of Russian athletes to participate in clean international sport.’

The ruling means that the phrase ‘neutral athlete’ must be displayed prominently on uniforms where the word ‘Russia’ also appears. The period of the ban will end in December 2022. 

The International Skating Union (ISU) did not provide any details on the reason for the delay other than also citing ‘legal consultations,’ in an emailed response to Reuters.

There was no immediate comment from the Russian Olympic Committee or the International Testing Agency (ITA), which is in charge of doping controls during the Olympics.

Russia has been banned from competing as a country in athletics since 2015. They were initially declared non-compliant in November of that year after widespread corruption was alleged.

A report, which was commissioned by WADA and carried out by lawyer Professor Richard McLaren, pointed towards state-sponsored doping in track and field athletics.

Further findings from another report in 2016 stated that the doping programme was operated across a four-year period, stretching across the ‘vast majority’ of sports at the summer and winter Olympics.

But, in 2018, the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) was reinstated as being compliant after the agency said they would release information from a Moscow-based laboratory taken from between January 2012 and August 2015.

It was discovered, however, that positive findings featuring in a version of the data previously provided by a whistleblower in 2017 were missing from the 2019 version of the files. Unsurprisingly, this triggered the beginning of a fresh inquiry.

An in-depth review was then carried out into the glaring inconsistencies and WADA’s executive committee unanimously decided to hit Russia with the ban. 

After the decision was made, former WADA president Sir Craig Reedie highlighted the ‘determination to act resolutely’.

‘For too long, Russian doping has detracted from clean sport,’ Reedie said. ‘The blatant breach by the Russian authorities of RUSADA’s reinstatement conditions demanded a robust response. This is exactly what has been delivered.

‘Russia was afforded every opportunity to get its house in order and re-join the global anti-doping community for the good of its athletes and of the integrity of sport, but it chose instead to continue in its stance of deception and denial.’