The Entire Skating World is Furious as Doped-Up Russian Blames Her Positive Test on Her Grandpa's Medicine

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Jerry Thornton - Barstool Sports


https://i.imgur.com/HoFzygS.png

I don't know what else the Russians are doing around the globe, but I can promise you that whatever they're up to, it can't compare to the giant slap in the face they're giving the whole world over this Figure Skating scandal. It makes the Salt Lake City judge's collusion and the attack on Nancy Kerrigan look like child's play by comparison.
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When I was a kid I witnessed shams like East German women's team showing up looking like they played for the Monstars and Team USSR beat Team USA in basketball only after the refs put time back on the clock three times at the end of regulation. And still I've never seen anything that outraged the world the way the Russians getting Kamila Valieva reinstated after she tested positive for a banned heart medication.

And as if that slap in the face wasn't bad enough, the people who forced a dangerous PED on an underaged minor decided to add a Three Stooges-like eye poke to make it even worse. In the form of this ridiculous excuse:
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Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva has argued that her positive drug test was caused by a mix-up with her grandfather's heart medication, an Olympic official said on Tuesday.

The 15-year-old's defence was revealed as Beijing braced for an unprecedented Olympic moment - the world's top figure skaters will compete in the evening's single competition with the likelihood they will not receive medals at the Winter Games.

Denis Oswald, the International Olympic Committee's permanent chair of the disciplinary commission, said Valieva claimed there was a mix-up at a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) hearing into whether she should be allowed to continue competing.

"Her argument was this contamination happened with a product her grandfather was taking," Oswald said.

Of course, the old "sucking back on grandpa's cough medicine" excuse.

It could happen to any athlete. Who among us hasn't reached into the medicine cabinet looking for a Tums and accidentally ingested Grampy's prescription drugs? What an amazing coincidence it just so happened to a 15-year-old on a team that can't compete under their own flag or be involved in any medal ceremonies because they have a pattern of their other athletes also accidentally testing positive over similar screwy mixups! Lucky for Team ROC the drug she mistakenly took just happens to also increase your blood flow and do quad jumps. It would've really set her performance back if she took Grampa Valieva's opioids or his boner meds. What a break, huh?

Incredibly though, other formerly Olympic skaters aren't buying the Russians excuse. It seems that Figure Skating's It Couple, Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir in particular. They've described how they knew enough to check with the authorities when they took so much as cold medicine, even when they were as young as 11. And they are spitting white hot fire that the IOC would allow this traveshamockery to go on:

https://youtu.be/qU9KpsLYsSg

"I have to condemn this decision with every ounce of my soul," Weir says. "The Olympics HAS to be clean or it's not fair. If you won't play fair, you can't play."

Hear hear. It cannot be said better than this. And before you say, "Sure, Jerry. You're just agreeing with Tara and Johnny because you stalked met them once."

https://i.imgur.com/msbahXH.jpg

Well then, you're missing the larger point. Just because these two and I are super close doesn't mean my judgment is clouded. They and I might be the leading voices when it comes to what a sham this whole thing is. But we are by no means the only people invested in keeping sports clean who are outraged:
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The scandal’s conclusion provoked strong reactions from all over the sporting world. …

United States Olympic & Paralympic CEO Sarah Hirshland said in a statement that the committee is “disappointed” in the decision, and called out the Russians for what appears to be a repeat offense.

“Athletes have the right to know they are competing on a level playing field. Unfortunately, today that is being denied. This appears to be another chapter in the systematic and pervasive disregard for clean sport by Russia,” Hirshland said. …

United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart mirrored the sentiment, saying that “Russia has hijacked the competition and stolen the moment from clean athletes and the public."

Russia's blatant disregard, not only for the health and well-being of a gifted young athlete but for fairness and world opinion as well, is the worst thing that's happened to the Olympic movement in the past 80 years. And it's going to ruin the the Winter Games signature event. And perhaps do permanent damage to this great sport and all it's proud tradition. Now that Russia has gotten away with it, there's no reason to ever send someone on the ice who isn't a 'roided up 15-year-old, and then hide behind her age and crazy stories about grandpappy's drugs forever. Thanks for ruining everything, Putin.

[DemonGeminiX]

I was under the impression that she wouldn't be permitted to medal and would remain unranked in the official competition. No?

:-k

[Muddy]

Yeah and Shecarri Richardson got banned for a little weed...

[lost in melb.]

I'd like to know more

[RBP]

Yeah and Shecarri Richardson got banned for a little weed...


I'd like to know more

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">“Don’t judge me, because I am human… I just happen to run a little faster.”<br><br>Sha’Carri Richardson (<a href="https://twitter.com/itskerrii?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@itskerrii</a>) speaks with <a href="https://twitter.com/SavannahGuthrie?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SavannahGuthrie</a> about her failed drug test. <a href="https://t.co/aZKTDhYn6Z">pic.twitter.com/aZKTDhYn6Z</a></p>&mdash; TODAY (@TODAYshow) <a href="https://twitter.com/TODAYshow/status/1410939050677215234?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 2, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[lost in melb.]

Thanks. I hate to say, but that Russian figure skate dancer might well have got off because she's a white poster girl. What do you think?

NOT saying Richardson penalised due to bring black.

[Muddy]

No.. I think it was different circumstances, but i can understand her gripe.. I in no way think it was race related though..

[Godfather]

Just ban the Russians from competing for the next few Olympics outright. Organized doping mafia over there. Having them compete under the OAR/ROC banner clearly isn't enough of a deterrent.

[Pony]

I assume that she's been tested multiple times since the failed test. If so, why haven't I seen the results of any of those tests? And if not, why?

You would think it would be standard to test again any positive result just to confirm the results?

[Muddy]

I will say this... Poor kid, whatever is going on I'm sure some fuck head adult put her in this situation.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

If you're actually watching these Olympics, results spoiler below:

I guess it's all moot now, she fell down multiple times in her finals performance and fell out of the medals, finishing 4th.

[lost in melb.]

If you're actually watching these Olympics, results spoiler below:

I guess it's all moot now, she fell down multiple times in her finals performance and fell out of the medals, finishing 4th.

Karma

[Muddy]

If you're actually watching these Olympics, results spoiler below:

I guess it's all moot now, she fell down multiple times in her finals performance and fell out of the medals, finishing 4th.

I'm watching them and enjoying them... I'm not going to not support our athletes over some political B.S.

[deebakes]

Karma

you know they made her so that the other two russians got a medal ceremony, right?

[Teh One Who Knocks]

you know they made her so that the other two russians got a medal ceremony, right?

:fbd:

[Teh One Who Knocks]

The Associated Press


https://i.imgur.com/WYe05u4l.jpeg

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach has criticized Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva's entourage for their "tremendous coldness" toward the 15-year-old skater after her mistake-filled free skate at the Beijing Olympics.

"When I afterwards saw how she was received by her closest entourage, with such, what appeared to be a tremendous coldness, it was chilling to see this," Bach said at a news conference on Friday. "Rather than giving her comfort, rather than to try to help her, you could feel this chilling atmosphere, this distance."

Valieva, who has been at the center of a controversy over a positive doping test, finished fourth overall despite placing first in the women's short program earlier in the week.

The IOC president did not name Valieva's coach, Eteri Tutberidze, who was seen on camera telling a visibly upset Valieva "Why did you let it go? Why did you stop fighting?"

Tutberidze and other members of Valieva's entourage will be investigated over the teenager's positive test for a heart medication ahead of the Olympics.

Bach says the pressure on Valieva was "beyond my imagination."

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Emily Giambalvo - Washington Post


https://i.imgur.com/3L1ckg8.jpg

BEIJING — NBC Olympics host Mike Tirico called on the International Olympic Committee to take action after Russian figure skating coaches “failed to protect” Kamila Valieva, the 15-year-old star at the center of a doping scandal that dominated the second half of the Beijing Games. Valieva’s free skate was marred by the raw, stunning collapse of the teenage gold medal favorite, who has been heavily scrutinized for the last week and a half after the results of drug test in December revealed a prohibited substance in her system.

“The adults in the room left her alone,” Tirico said from a studio during the network’s Thursday night coverage of the Games. “Portrayed by some this week as the villain, by others as the victim, she is, in fact, the victim of the villains. The coaches and National Olympic Committee surrounding Kamila Valieva, whether they orchestrated, prescribed or enabled all of this is unclear, but what is certain: They failed to protect her.”

Valieva and her teammates competed at these Games under the banner of the Russian Olympic Committee because the country is still technically banned for a state-sponsored doping scheme uncovered after the 2014 Sochi Games. Valieva’s positive test, particularly given her age, raised concerns that the country has not reformed its anti-doping system.

“It’s time for the IOC to stand up, whether it’s about blocking Russia from hosting events for a very long time or stringent and globally transparent testing for Russian athletes going forward,” Tirico said in a pointed monologue, especially notable coming from the face of the Olympics’ longtime American broadcast partner. “If swift action from the top of the Olympic movement does not happen quickly, the very future of the Games could be in jeopardy.”

Noting Russia’s past doping scandal, Tirico said: “Guilt by association is often unfair, but it’s called for here. … The deal that was brokered was supposed to ensure a level playing field while giving clean Russian athletes a chance to compete. But that scenario totally broke down here. Now a failed a drug test from one of their athletes has tarnished one of the marquee events in the Games and taken away from every skater’s moment.”

Valieva’s positive test that came to light last week prompted an expedited hearing before the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which ruled Valieva could continue competing. The court cited the irreparable harm to Valieva if she had been suspended and later found innocent. The IOC said before the women’s competition that medals would not be awarded if Valieva finished on the podium — an indication that officials were preparing for a scenario in which she was later disqualified. Valieva, in first after the short program, finished fourth and was inconsolable after her score appeared. The podium ceremony went on without her.

Valieva entered the Games as a quadruple-jumping phenom, but in her final performance here, she looked like a broken 15-year-old. Tirico noted that Valieva appeared “terrified” before beginning her free skate. She stumbled on multiple jumps and fell twice. After her music ended, Valieva bent over and then brought her hands to her face.

“It makes me angry that the adults around her weren’t able to make better decisions and be there for her, because she is the one now dealing with the consequences and she’s just 15 and that’s not fair,” 1998 Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinski said on the broadcast. “Again, with that being said, she should not have been allowed to skate in this Olympic event.”

IOC President Thomas Bach on Friday criticized Valieva’s coaches for their “tremendous coldness” after the teenager finished her disastrous skate.

Eteri Tutberidze, whose harsh tactics have drawn scrutiny, is the coach of all three Russian women’s skaters in Beijing. In 2018, her pupils Alina Zagitova (gold) and Evgenia Medvedeva (silver) were on the top of the Olympic podium. In Beijing, Valieva’s breakdown created a path for training mates Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova to win the gold and silver.

Valieva performed as the final skater, and as she stepped off the ice, Tutberidze said in Russian: “Explain it to me. … You let it go completely. … I don’t get it. Everything was fine.”

Valieva’s doping case is still ongoing, and the findings will determine whether her fourth-place finish stands. That legal process will take time, but, Tirico said, “something undeniable is the harm to the person at the center of all of it.”

[Muddy]

I watch this last night and it was so fkn horrible, I had to walk on the back deck... I thought I was gonna frkn cry... Everybody there were having god damn mental breakdowns over this... Even the Japanese skater couldn't hold it together emotionally.. Absolutely horrible what they have done to this child...

[Teh One Who Knocks]

I watch this last night and it was so fkn horrible, I had to walk on the back deck... I thought I was gonna frkn cry... Everybody there were having god damn mental breakdowns over this... Even the Japanese skater couldn't hold it together emotionally.. Absolutely horrible what they have done to this child...

First, I absolutely think they should have suspended her immediately when she tested positive for a banned substance. Breaking the rules is breaking the rules. With that said, this poor girl was nothing more than a pawn used by the Russians, full stop. She may not have even known that they had given her a banned substance. But using her this way for "Russian Glory" just to get a medal because they knew they had an uber talented athlete in their midst is utterly reprehensible. Who knows if this girl will even be able to recover emotionally and psychologically from what they put her thru? Not sure if her parents were complicit in the whole thing with the Russian government, but absolutely every single adult in her life has let her down in the worst kind of way. I feel extremely sorry for her.

[Muddy]

First, I absolutely think they should have suspended her immediately when she tested positive for a banned substance. Breaking the rules is breaking the rules. With that said, this poor girl was nothing more than a pawn used by the Russians, full stop. She may not have even known that they had given her a banned substance. But using her this way for "Russian Glory" just to get a medal because they knew they had an uber talented athlete in their midst is utterly reprehensible. Who knows if this girl will even be able to recover emotionally and psychologically from what they put her thru? Not sure if her parents were complicit in the whole thing with the Russian government, but absolutely every single adult in her life has let her down in the worst kind of way. I feel extremely sorry for her.

I agree...

[Teh One Who Knocks]

This is an excellent article, well worth reading. Dan's a good sports writer.


Olympic figure skater Kamila Valieva was failed by the system, adults
By Dan Wetzel - Yahoo Sports


https://i.imgur.com/TbUF3JB.png

Kamila Valieva was heaving. Not crying. Heaving. This was pain, full-on, full-emotion, pain. This was humiliation. This was devastation. This was everything.

She came to Beijing at 15 years old to win the hearts of skating fans around the world and win a gold medal in women's individual figure skating. She wound up the villain of the Olympics, the poster girl for doping, cheating and Russian moral bankruptcy.

And then, finally, she was a floundering failure on ice.

The girl who never lost, who never fell, who never did anything but soar higher and spin straighter than any skater ever, came in fourth. Her teammates, Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova, took gold and silver, respectively. Japan's Kaori Sakamoto won bronze.

Now the bill was coming due, an open wound on international television. Anguish pouring out through gasps and screams and tears that rolled down her cheeks to the side of an Olympic rink.

Her coach appeared cold and distant. Her teammates behind her were of little help. Trusova was having her own meltdown. Shcherbakova, who had just won the Olympics, sat alone on a couch holding a stuffed animal. No one seemed to care.

The Russians, who pride themselves on steely nerves and emotionless reactions, were in chaos.

This, this whole thing, this entire figure skating competition was a disaster, a disgrace, a dishonor to a once-great competition. It was a disservice to everyone involved, especially these teens trained and taught to perform.

"Irreparable harm," is what the Court of Arbitration for Sport used as justification for bending logic and the rules to allow Valieva to skate despite a positive drug test hanging over her head.

Well, here was the irreparable harm.

To the sport. To the Olympics.

To Valieva, you'd imagine, this kid who, no matter the laughable defense of Russian lawyers, didn't get hopped up on heart pills by accident via her grandpa's stash. And she sure didn't, all by her sheltered self, acquire, concoct and then ingest a sophisticated cardiac cocktail of three separate medications — one of them banned by the World Anti Doping Agency.

Russian coaches. Russian doctors. Russian officials. That's who put this kind of stuff together. That's who administers it, not some naive teen who's lived nearly her entire life inside the cocoon of the Figure Skating Federation of Russia, built, by all means necessary, to be a champion.

Yet now she was not a champion. She was a punchline. A cautionary tale. The moral of a story about morals. She was a heaping dose of global schadenfreude, her failure celebrated. Fifteen? That's a high school sophomore, the age when the slightest of slights on social media inside a small peer group can deliver unimaginable negative reactions.

How is it on the global stage?

Now she was alone bawling. Failed by her coaches. Failed by her federation. Failed by the IOC and CAS and everyone else who was supposed to protect her, but instead propped her up for profit and tainted glory.

A press agent at the figure skating facility was trying to tell her she didn't have to stop for the media, that she could just keep walking. "I won't make you stop," the woman said. Valieva nodded. It might have been the first person who generally cared about Valieva that she had met in years. The first one to offer free will.

Whether Valieva knew what was going into her system or not, is still unknown.

She may have. Maybe all the elite skaters do. But even if she did, she was under the control — physical, mental and emotional — of this Russian skating machine that's now churned out five medals and three individual champions across three Olympics. It was either do this, or we find another. It's the same mind control that's allowed pedophiles and abusers to operate throughout sport for generations.

She hailed from a country that was technically banned from the Olympics because of its comprehensive state-run doping operation. These are people who didn't just cheat the 2014 Olympics, but the 2014 Paralympics too. A country where, after the scandal broke, saw two of the main architects turn up dead.

What chance did this girl have? What choice? Same for Shcherbakova and Trusova, both of whom come from the same system, the same coaches, the same doctors, and neither of which looked happy after. They won, but for how long? Suspicions are everywhere.

The Russians don't care and the IOC has never made them care. Cheat without punishment and you're encouraged to just cheat more and more and more until this carnage, the truth, this ugly truth, is playing out for all to see.

This is figure skating? This is the Olympics? This is what a court had to spare from irreparable harm?

https://i.imgur.com/kTuBdjR.png

The system calls Valieva a "Protected Person" — incapable of being responsible for what is going into her body. Yet rather than protect this person, this child, the decision-makers just sent her back into a cauldron of pressure and politics to serve her sporting masters.

Skate. Spin. Quad. Smile. Win. She must win.

Only she couldn't. The one thing she does best, the thing she does better than anyone ever, stood no chance against such impossible torment and tension.

The shame here should spread far beyond the Russians, who likely will feel none and just find another skinny kid from Samara or Saint Petersburg or who can twirl on ice. No, this should extend to the entire sport, the entire Olympics, the entire absurd anti-doping operation that not only failed to protect anyone, but set them up and sent them out for worse.

Kamila Valieva is a victim of child abuse in real time. Yet the Olympics not only kept her with her captives, they emboldened and empowered them.

The IOC is proud that it outsourced all discipline, doping or otherwise. It would rather just wash its hands and cash the checks. What is left behind is left behind, like some useless, dilapidated bobsled track in Sarajevo. It's just the cost of the Games, the cost of doing business.

In this case it was a heaving, bawling, broken 15-year-old, a singular example of a far greater evil.

And it was all avoidable. Every last bit of it.

[Muddy]

I'll read it in a bit... Cant dig too deep at work...

[deebakes]

:rip: