Six-time Olympic champion Egorova called CAS and ISU decisions in Valieva case unfair

Six-time Olympic cross-country skiing champion Lyubov Egorova said she disagreed with the decisions of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and the International Skating Union (ISU) on disqualification. Kamila Valieva and the redistribution of final places in the team figure skating tournament at the 2022 Beijing Games.

On Monday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) suspended figure skater Valieva for four years for violating anti-doping rules. The disqualification period begins on December 25, 2021. The ISU later announced that all of the athlete’s results from the date of sample collection had been canceled. This also led to a review of the results of the 2022 Olympics team tournament, where the Russian team won. First place is now awarded to the American team, the Japanese are second and the Russians will receive bronze.

— I do not agree with these decisions. It is not fair. If you want to punish someone, remove the medals immediately after the competition ends. But deciding something two years later is a mistake. The system shouldn’t work like that. Athletes want to know their fate right away, as do spectators.

These samples are opened after many years. The punishments and the names of the new champions are announced. This is absurd! Everything in the world is changing, new technologies are appearing. The IOC, WADA and the courts are stripping athletes of medals because of a pill they once took. Those who received new medals also feel inferior.

— Your opinion: is it no longer possible to deprive people of rewards after the competition ends?

– Certainly. If the inspection finds nothing there, that’s all. Years later, there is no need to revise anything. It is unfair.

— For you, are Russian figure skaters, including Kamila Valieva, champions?

– For me, yes. If they weren’t immediately caught doing something, they were champions. These are not the first stories related to Russian athletes. For some reason, they only find faults in them. Everything else is clean. Only we take drugs that are then added to the list of banned drugs. We are not allowed to do anything – not eat, not drink, not take tests. You can find anything, the main thing is to want it, ”quotes RB Sport Egorova.

Before the personal tournament at the Beijing Olympics, it became known that the banned drug trimetazidine was found during Valieva’s doping test at the Russian Championship. The CAS allowed the Russian to participate in the individual competitions at the Games, where she finished fourth, but this result was also annulled. The athlete also lost the title of European champion, the title went to Anna Shcherbakova.

RB Sports