Choreographer of the Tutberidze group: “Our fault is present in the Valieva affair”

Daniil Gleikhengauz, choreographer of the group of Honored Russian figure skating coach Eteri Tutberidze, said that responsibility for the entry of a banned substance into Kamila Valieva’s body also lies with the coaching staff.

On Monday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) suspended Valieva, 17, for four years for violating anti-doping rules. The court release noted that the skater was unable to provide convincing evidence that the violation was unintentional. The disqualification period begins on December 25, 2021. The International Skating Union (ISU) announced that all of the athlete’s results from the date of sample collection have 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.

– Eteri and Sergei formed the team Olympic champion in 2014, after which the three of us led our athletes to gold and silver medals at the Korean Olympics, to victories at the European Championships and the world. As always, we have prepared our athletes for these Beijing Olympic Games. Our team is for clean sport, there should be no doping in sport, we have never resorted to it and never will! Everyone knows we have a system. So what is the logic here: doping one of the athletes? I don’t understand!

I don’t understand how this substance got into Kamila’s sample, I know for sure that none of us could advise our athlete to dope, and I am sure in Kamila that she never used it intentionally. I myself would give much to discover the truth about how the substance ended up in his sample. All this time, the lawyers asked us not to comment on the situation so as not to make the situation worse. After all, a complex process was underway. For my part, I did what I could to help understand the situation. I attended the interrogations and participated in the hearings by video link. And I am ready to continue doing everything so that the truth is found. In any case, our guilt is present, since we did not protect our athlete. It makes my soul sad and painful.

Now let’s talk about our entire team at the Olympics. Our team at that time had 3 of the strongest singles players on the planet, and each of them could win first place in their discipline. Thus, our team found itself hostage to the sample delay situation. Who is responsible for this, if it was done on purpose – I’m afraid we will never know. But our guys deservedly won the gold medal in the team tournament and I will always consider them the champions of the Beijing Olympic Games.

In the end, I would like to personally address Kamila herself. We have spent many years together, experienced a lot, I had a lot of fun working together, we have created so many memorable images and productions and, I am sure, we will do even more. Know that my support is always with you. I will try to help in any way possible. I also want to believe that there will always be Olympic Games in your life and that justice will prevail! Love and kindness to all! — wrote Gleikhengauz on the social network.