Tutberidze: “Why give Valieva doping at the Russian Championship? She won the whole season and was clean everywhere.

Eteri Tutberidze coach of a Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva said she was left with many questions following the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decision to ban the athlete for four years.

At the end of January, the CAS suspended Valieva for four years for violating anti-doping rules. Trimetazidine was detected in the athlete’s doping sample taken during the Russian Championships in December 2021. The 17-year-old Russian’s disqualification period begins on December 25, 2021, and her results have been canceled since that date .

– I have a lot of questions. What is this? Where does it come from? No one wanted to…well, no one even wanted to think rationally.

She was clean everywhere, at first – before and after. Why should she take drugs at the Russian Championship? She won the whole season, she was clean everywhere – but here, that means, we give her… Was she supposed to jump higher? Turn more? We don’t have seconds when we ran faster or, for example, jumped further,” Tutberidze said in an interview with NHK.

The CAS decision in the Valieva case led to a review of the results of the team figure skating tournament at the 2022 Olympics, where the Russian team won. First place is now awarded to the American team, the Japanese are second and the Russians will receive bronze. Valieva is also deprived of gold at the 2022 European Championship.