Kamila Valieva, the 15-year-old Russian famous person who was once anticipated to ship her country its 3rd directly Olympic gold medal in girls’s determine skating, practiced as same old on Thursday, hours after stories surfaced that she had examined certain for a banned substance.
Valieva examined certain for the guts medicine prior to the Beijing Video games, the Russian newspaper RBC reported.
The pattern was once reportedly bought prior to Valieva received the Eu championship closing month in Estonia, a efficiency that solidified her standing because the chief of Russia’s “quad squad” of elite girls’s determine skaters.
It’s unclear if Russia is interesting or preventing the outcome, regardless that her light-hearted look at her steadily scheduled observe signifies that the federation isn’t accepting any discovering that will get rid of her.
“She isn’t suspended,” Russian determine skating federation spokeswoman Olga Ermolina mentioned, providing no additional element.
The Global Skating Union, the game’s governing frame, mentioned in a observation it “can’t divulge any details about any conceivable anti-doping rule violation.”
Valieva ran via her program and skated with teammate Alexandra Trusova whilst getting tips from trainer Eteri Tutberidze on the observe rink. Valieva flashed a grin to one in all her coaches close to the top of the more or less 30-minute consultation, and not one of the skaters took questions from journalists.
When Valieva left the media space, she gave a gesture with a fist within the air. It gave the impression that she answered to one thing inaudible that was once requested via a journalist talking to her in Russian.
A good take a look at may just no longer handiest price Russia the gold medal from the group pageant however threaten Valieva’s likelihood to win the person pageant. It begins Tuesday and she or he is the overpowering favourite to win gold.
The drug detected, trimetazidine, is a metabolic agent that is helping save you angina assaults and treats vertigo, in keeping with the Eu Union’s drugs company. It’s banned via the International Anti-Doping Company as a result of it may assist staying power and build up blood float potency, either one of which might assist a determine skater.
Probably the most well-known case of trimetazidine in sports activities doping concerned Chinese language megastar swimmer Solar Yang, the three-time Olympic champ who served a three-month ban in 2014. Russian bobsledder Nadezhda Sergeeva additionally examined certain for it on the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics; she was once disqualified from the two-woman bobsled tournament and served an eight-month ban.
It’s unclear whether or not Valieva implemented for a healing use exemption or has a historical past of center issues.
Russian athletes are in Beijing competing as ROC, brief for Russian Olympic Committee, after the rustic was once banned as a result of an enormous state-sponsored doping scheme on the 2014 Sochi Olympics.