MOSCOW, July 14, Oleg Bogatov. Russian State Duma deputy Nikolai Valuev said in interview that if the use of doping by Beijing Olympic champion Kamila Valieva is proven, then the young age of the figure skater will not be the basis for an excuse. In February, Valieva became the winner of the Olympic team tournament as part of the Russian team. But the awards ceremony was not held. It became known that Valieva’s doping test dated December 25, 2021 turned out to be positive, the banned drug trimetazidine was found in her blood. Nevertheless, the International Olympic Committee allowed the athlete to participate in individual competitions, where Valieva took fourth place. The final verdict in the case of the athlete has not yet been delivered. «The investigation will continue. And if, nevertheless, there was a prohibited substance in her blood, then her young age is no excuse for this. It's not about age, but whether you took the drug or not, pricked — I didn’t inject. There is no third party in the issue of doping, there is no golden mean,» Valuev said. The agency's interlocutor believes that the political factor will affect Valieva's case. “If there is at least a thousandth of some banned substance in the body, then in the Western media everything will be written in such a way that no one will have any doubts that this drug was eaten in kilograms. And somewhere in small, small print they will write the truth. As was the case with our boxer Sasha Povetkin, when they found some remnants of meldonium,» he said. Read the full interview with Nikolai Valuev on Thursday at rsport.ria.ru.
