The mystery of Kamila Valieva

Kamila Valieva and the skaters had two appointments on their agenda this Wednesday.

The medal ceremony of the team competition closed on Monday with the victory of the ROC (Russian Olympic Committee) ahead of the United States and Japan, and a practice session.

The first did not take place.

Training saw Yuzuru Hanyu, who is preparing for the men's final, rehearse quadruple axels;

to Nathan Chen, the favorite, to show his confidence, to many more, but no sign of Valieva, 15, the leader of her team, the first skater in the history of the Olympic Games to achieve a quadruple jump, nor of other companions of the champion team.

The surprise at the absences triggered speculation on the networks and in some media, which began to ask questions.

To those referring to the suspension of the medal ceremony, the spokesman for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) replied that a "tricky" legal matter had arisen and that the international skating federation (ISU) and its representatives were being consulted. legal advisers to solve it.

"We'll report back later," he said.

Russian trainers explained that three of the skaters had not practiced because it was their turn to rest.

Eteri Tuberidze, the coach of Valieva, and of Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova, the other two stars of the Russian women's team, and favorites for the podium, did not speak.

Nobody gave a reason for the absence of the phenomenal figure skater.

There was no more information.

There were not even any reactions to the claims advanced by the website insidethegames.biz and USA Today, which advanced throughout the long day that it was a matter of doping, that it affected Kamila Valieva in person and that the legal problem derived that the skater is under 16 years of age and the World Anti-Doping Code establishes a series of measures to protect the privacy and rights of minors.

Only late in the afternoon in Europe, after midnight in Beijing, did light begin to shine from Moscow.

The Reuters office in the Russian capital echoed the news published in the RBC and Kommersant newspapers that revealed that, in effect, there had been a positive control of Valieva weeks before the Games with a substance called trimetazidine, a drug for sick people. heart that appears on the list of prohibited substances in the section on metabolic modulators.

Trimetazidine, a substance capable of improving coronary circulation, was added to the international list of prohibited substances in January 2014. That same year, a star athlete, Chinese swimmer Sun Yang, a double Olympic champion in London, tested positive for it. .

The Chinese agency suspended him for three months.

Russian media claim, however, that its effect on performance is nil.

No official body, neither the ITA agency, the one in charge of controls, nor the ROC nor the IOC have confirmed the information, which, if true, would perhaps deprive Valieva of the European Championship won a few weeks ago and of the team gold, and to the Games of a rising star.

The case is reminiscent of the positive for Meldonium, a drug that was only used in Russia with similar effects and was added to the list in 2016, which led to a 15-month suspension for tennis player María Sharapova.

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