For him, she is innocent.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that it was "impossible" that figure skater Kamila Valieva, at the center of a doping scandal during the 2022 Beijing Olympics, could have acted "dishonestly".
“The whole country and all the figure skating fans around the world trembled for Kamila.
His talent brings together all the most complex elements of figure skating, his plastic, his beauty, his power and his tenderness, "said the Head of State who received on Tuesday at the Kremlin the Russian athletes who won medals at the 2022 Olympics, including Valieva. .
A perfection “impossible to achieve dishonestly”
“This perfection is impossible to achieve dishonestly, by using additional means, by resorting to manipulations.
In figure skating, all these extra means are useless, we know that and fully understand,” he continued.
For her first Winter Olympics at just 15 years old, Valieva participated in Russia's victory in the team event in Beijing.
On this occasion, she became the first skater to land quadruple jumps at the Olympics.
The Olympic anti-doping authorities then announced that the Russian teenager had been the subject of a positive doping control at the end of December for trimetazidine, a substance used to treat angina pectoris and would promote blood circulation.
Valieva had received at the last minute from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) the green light to participate in the women's event of which she was the great favorite, without commenting on her positive control.
In the lead after the short program, she had completely missed her free program, falling several times and ending in tears to finish in fourth place, at the foot of the Olympic podium.