Zhurova on Canada’s complaints about the ISU decision: “It will be absolutely impossible to take away the bronze medal from Russia in the team competition”

Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Olympic champion in speed skating Svetlana Jourova believes it is almost impossible to take away the bronze medal in the team figure skating tournament at the 2022 Games from the Russians.

The International Skating Union (ISU) on Tuesday recognized the Russian team as bronze medalists in the team competition at the Beijing Olympics, overturning Kamila Valieva’s performance. Considering their scores, the Russians took first place. Team Canada remained fourth and Skate Canada expressed disappointment with the ISU’s decision, noting that it would not rule out appealing.

— Bronze is not a compromise; from the ISU’s point of view, this is the only legal solution. Here there is an opportunity to take away points from Kamila, as if the team competed without her, and she still took third place. But it seems the Canadians wanted to get on the podium in the hopes that we would be disqualified outright. It seems they want to protest this, while the ROC is determined to protest the deprivation of the team gold medal, because Kamila did not test positive at the Olympics.

— Do you think the team could also lose bronze?

“It will be completely impossible, for them to pursue it, but we will pursue it too.” There was one case of microdose; In recent years, athletes have been acquitted more than once for microdosing. The process crisis at WADA is evident; this should not happen. A protected person is sentenced to four years for a microdose, while unprotected people received two years for serious anabolic steroids, Zhurova told .

On Monday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) issued a verdict in Valieva’s case, she was found guilty of violating anti-doping rules and was disqualified for 4 years from the date of collection of the doping sample – December 25, 2021. The ISU on Tuesday annulled all of the Russian’s results during this period, including her performance at the Olympics and gold at the 2022 European Championship.