Eteri Tutberidze, the coach of Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva whose pre-Olympic doping probe the lab said showed a forbidden substance during the 2022 Beijing Games, said on Saturday she was certain of the athlete's innocence
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th February, 2022) Eteri Tutberidze, the coach of Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva whose pre-Olympic doping probe the lab said showed a forbidden substance during the 2022 Beijing Games, said on Saturday she was certain of the athlete's innocence.
"A very controversial and difficult situation has arisen. A lot of questions and very few answers. I want to say that I am absolutely sure that Kamila is innocent and pure. And for us this is not a theorem, but an axiom - it does not need to be proven," Tutberidze said, as quoted by Russia's Channel One broadcaster.
The coach stressed that the team continued to stand by Valieva despite the controversy.
"It is very unclear why the athlete with dubious doping test on December 25 was admitted to the Olympic Games. This is either a fatal coincidence or a well-planned scheme. We really hope that justice will prevail," Tutberidze said.
This past Friday, the International Testing Agency said that Valieva's probe, which was performed by a WADA-accredited laboratory in Stockholm on December 25 and reported by it on Tuesday, contained trimetazidine. The athlete was initially suspended from the Games, but appealed the suspension and was allowed to continue to participate in the Olympics on Wednesday. �
