Why the team gold of Olympic Beijing was taken away from Russian skaters: we conducted an investigation

Alas, a few days before that, the main Olympic scandal flared up. On the day when our skaters were to be awarded gold for command, a banned substance was announced found in the sample of the “space child”, potentially the best, as she was called, figure skater in world history, Kamila Valieva

Russian skaters easily won the competition in the team. But due to the showdown with Valieva’s doping test, nothing has been received so far. And nobody got…

The proceedings last for a year and the question still remains: who is the 2022 Olympic champion in the team tournament? We or the Americans, who currently have “silver”?

However, the most obvious version, which seemed to always lie on the surface: who benefits from it, has not yet been voiced.

Could WADA have deliberately delayed the announcement of Camila’s test results, holding on to our victory in this event, and then lowering them from heaven to earth?

The scandalous sample from Camilla was taken almost a month and a half earlier – on December 25, 2021 at the Russian Championship. But the fact that the athlete was found to have trimetazidine, which is not doping in the literal sense of the word, but supports the heart muscle during heavy exertion and thus gives a certain advantage, became known only in Beijing. And – after the Russian victory in the team competition.

The specialists of the laboratory in Stockholm explained their slow work by the park – they say, there were Christmas holidays, a lot of research had accumulated, so they did not have time to check the doping test of the young figure skater.

Hard to believe. Why was everything checked out for everyone else on time, but they forgot about the main contender for the gold of the Olympics? This simply cannot be.

If trimetazidine had been found back in January, most likely, the child prodigy Valieva would have flown past Beijing.

But – they would have managed to replace her with Lisa Tuktamysheva. And the champion would still be ours. Not Shcherbakov, but Trusova.

Even if doping had become known on the eve of the team competition, Camila had time to be replaced by one of them. Anya or Sasha in any combination with a guarantee provided the first place to the Russians.

If the officials had acted fairly, as many wanted, even before the doping became known, they would have allowed not only Kamila to skate the team competition, but Trusova or Shcherbakova with her, which was allowed by the rules, the points received were enough in any case would be for gold. Even if the result of Valieva was eventually annulled.

The Americans, who followed ours, “medaled” all their possible athletes. The Japanese too. In general, absolutely everything and everything was done for their own.

And only the Russians were greedy.

For some unbelievable reason, Russian sports officials put everything on Valieva. And they did not allow the two remaining girls to participate in the team tournament. Someone, apparently, really wanted to see the two-time Olympic champion in the person of one Kamila Valieva.

After all, it was she who turned before departure with heartfelt words to Vladimir Putin that our Olympians will definitely justify the trust placed in them by the president.

What even looked a little strange: the speech was entrusted to the youngest member of the team, a ninth-grader, were there really no more deserved and titled ones to say all this?

One of the main versions so far: WADA, in collusion with the ISU and the IOC, deliberately delayed the results of the tests so that the scandal with the 15-year-old contender for victory flared up during the Games in order to give rise to raising the age limit. But all this is unconvincing.

Since by that time it was fundamentally decided to raise the age of women. Another victory for a teenager from Russia (after 15-year-old Alina Zagitova), on the contrary, would give another powerful trump card to the supporters of change. Like, look, again a one-time champion. Two consecutive children’s victories at the Olympics in the debut season would be the best argument in order to return the “zrezhensky” skating.

Modern sport is a gigantic business, adult ambassadors are needed for advertising contracts. Adult girls are sold better than girls and there is no need to negotiate with legal representatives. Long-playing champions also cost more. It is a fact.

But even raising the age limit would still work to the benefit of the Russians – the same Valieva, who, having managed to reach adulthood, would remain the youngest and unsurpassed for many years.

The rest of the world did not need an incentive in the form of a doping scandal with Valieva to raise the age limit.

So why would WADA need this, which, as you know, does not have the most crystal-clear reputation and is involved in ties with the United States?

The fact is that at the last Olympics, American figure skaters for the first time in history had every chance of team gold. They have a very strong team. Except girls. Only ours could interfere with them.

No, no one put anything into Camila’s test tube. This is out of the question. The minimum dose of a prohibited drug was actually found in her system. This fact is not disputed by anyone, including the defense side.

But now imagine that in one of the WADA laboratories they find out that in the doping test of one of the strongest Russian figure skaters, who will definitely be entered in the team tournament at the Olympics, a minimum concentration of prohibited substances was found.

Let’s assume that the employees of the laboratory where Valieva’s doping test was examined pass this information on to their management in a timely manner. And here the most interesting begins.

Everyone knows that Valieva is on the team, replacing her with two other skaters does nothing; it means that we must let her speak and only then raise the issue of disqualification. To whom will the medals go? To the Americans.

If there was intent in WADA’s actions, then the only reason that explains it is precisely this: to allow the US team in the team tournament to receive the championship retroactively.

They say that sooner or later in life you have to pay for everything. But sooner or later justice will prevail. As a result, Anya Shcherbakova became the gold medalist, Sasha Trusova won the silver.

Sports officials from Russia, who did not allow these girls to perform, seem to have outplayed themselves.

Kamila Valieva is still in limbo. Like the rest of our skaters …

A year ago, on February 17, they did not suspect that, perhaps, the next time would not happen so soon, when we would be interested not in politics, but in beauty and sports justice. Albeit with a touch of bitterness.