Olympic Skater Blames Positive Drug Test on Heart Medication Mix-Up

February 16, 2022

Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva said her positive drug test was due to a mix-up with her grandfather’s heart medications. To Reuters.

Denis Oswald, permanent chairman of the International Olympic Committee’s disciplinary commission, said Valieva discussed the confusion at a hearing before the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which was convened to determine whether she should be allowed to continue competing.

  • “Her argument was that this infection was due to a product her grandfather was taking,” Oswald told reporters.
  • Valieva, a 15-year-old figure skater from the Russian Olympic Committee, was cleared to compete in women’s singles after a panel of three judges agreed with the Russian anti-doping agency’s decision to lift her ban.

However, the court did not consider the merits of the drug case, reports Reuters. The Russian anti-doping agency, known as RUSADA, will hold hearings after the end of the Winter Games.

Valieva was tested at the national championship on December 25. A positive result for the banned angina drug trimetazidine was not known until February 8, after she had already entered the Beijing Games as a team.

Valieva’s sample included two other substances that are sometimes used to help the heart but are not on the banned list. To New York Times. Two substances, hypoxia, and L-carnitine were also listed on her doping control form.

The newspaper reported that the discovery of several of these substances in an elite athlete, especially one so young, was described as unusual.

  • “This is a triple substance – two of them are allowed, and one is prohibited,” Travis Tygart, executive director of the US Anti-Doping Agency, told the newspaper.
  • The benefits of this combination “seem to be focused on increasing endurance, reducing fatigue, and increasing efficiency,” he said.
  • The World Anti-Doping Agency questioned why RUSADA did not respond to the positive result sooner, Reuters reports.

Oswald also said Valieva’s “B” sample had not yet been analyzed, Reuters reported. According to anti-doping rules, the Athlete’s urine is tested twice. If the “A” sample is positive, the testing laboratory must inform the responsible authority about this, for example, in this case, RUSADA.The Athlete may then waive the right to have a B Sample but accept the doping charge. Otherwise, disciplinary proceedings may not be initiated until samples “A” and “B” have been verified.

RUSADA also did not respond to inquiries about why Valieva’s B sample was not tested, Reuters reported.

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