Beijing Olympics: Russia’s medal-winning athlete returns to training after being reported to test positive for drugs – National

Russian Figure skating sensation Kamila Valieva showed up for her scheduled practice at Beijing Olympics On Thursday, after Russian media reported that the 15-year-old boy had tested positive for a banned substance.

The teenager is a member of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) that won Monday’s figure skating team event against the United States and Japan. Her and her teammates’ Olympic medal ceremony has been delayed ever since for unexplained legal reasons.

Wearing a navy blue hoodie, black stockings with shorts, and hair in a bun, Valieva arrived at the ice rink just after 11 a.m. Her coach Eteri Tutberidze was also in attendance.

Russian media reported on Wednesday that Valieva had returned a positive test result, with the RBC and Kommersant newspapers naming the drug as Trimetazidine, which is commonly used to treat chest pain.

A positive test result could cost Russia the gold medal from the team competition and threaten Valieva’s chances of winning in the individual competition that begins on Tuesday.

If Valieva is stripped of her medal, Canada’s Madeline Schizas could move to bronze.

Repeated attempts to reach Reuters’ mission as a chef of the Republic of China were unsuccessful. His phone did not answer and the ROC office in Beijing was locked and unmanned on Thursday. The ROC on Wednesday declined to comment on reports that Valieva had returned a positive test result.

The International Olympic Committee also declined to comment on Thursday.

The teenager made one of the highlights of the Beijing Olympics to date when she performed the first quad jump by a woman in Olympic competition.

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Figure skating is a prestigious Russian sport, in which it has excellent records at Olympic and world championships. Any move to punish Valieva or strip their team of medals could trigger a nationwide outcry.

Well-known journalist Vasily Konov, deputy producer of the Russian sports channel Match-TV, said without citing sources that the sample in question was taken two months ago.

“The drug trimetazidine does not help an athlete in any way. At all. It was found in a single sample in December. A very small quantity. Nothing in her samples before or since,” he wrote on social media.

“There is no doping in the usual sense. Is not! This heart medication does not affect… performance. Now let Kamila rest in peace.”

Former Russian doubles figure skater Tatiana Volosozhar, who won two gold medals at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, showed solidarity with Valieva on social media, calling for the use of hashtags. # in Russian #Iwill always believeve to send support to the teenagers.

Her post was “liked” on Instagram by Valieva herself.

Trimetazidine, or TMZ, works by increasing blood flow to the heart and limiting rapid changes in blood pressure. The drug is not approved for use in the United States. It has been on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) list of banned substances since 2014.

Dr Sadiya Khan, a cardiologist and assistant professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said that in theory, such a drug could be administered to a healthy person to boost blood flow. above and beyond normal levels.

“The idea behind it is very potential if you increase blood flow, you can improve someone’s ability to exercise longer or exercise more effectively by allowing the heart to respond supernormally. often,” Khan said in a phone interview.

But using any medicine in a way not intended can have negative side effects, even if those risks are not known. “I think it can be very dangerous,” she said.

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The other note, she says, is that it’s not clear that it offers any performance-enhancing benefits.

“There is a theoretical benefit,” she said. “There is no solid evidence that it makes a difference.”

The case was even more complicated when Valieva was only 15 years old.

Based on WADA’s World Anti-Doping Code, Athletes in violation of doping should be publicly named, but this is not required if the person concerned is a minor under the age of 18.

In that case, under rule 14.3.7, any optional public disclosure “will be proportionate to the facts and circumstances of the case.”

Earlier, on Wednesday, the International Olympic Committee said the need for “legal consultation” had forced the postponement of the medal ceremony for the event the winning Russian figure skating team.

“You can bet your bottom dollar, we are doing everything we can to get this situation resolved as soon as possible. I cannot give you any more details but we will do our best,” said IOC spokesman Mark Adams.

The IOC, the International Skating Federation and the international body in charge of drug testing during the Olympics all declined to comment.

The Russian Sports Ministry said it was too early to comment on the reason for the postponement of the match.

Russia has acknowledged some shortcomings in implementing anti-doping rules but denied running a state-sponsored doping program. The country’s athletes are competing at the Beijing Olympics without their national flags and anthems, because of sanctions against Russia for previous violations.

(Additional reporting by Karolos Grohmann, Chang-Ran Kim, Julien Pretot, Iain Axon, Maria Kiselyova, Vladimir Soldatkin and Michele Gershberg, Julie Featnhuysen; Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Christian Radnedge and Michael Perry)