Former Russian figure skater Adelina Sotnikova in an interview published on the YouTube channel «Tatarka FM» shocked many words that she was allegedly found to have doping in 2014. The Sport correspondent recalls that in fact the name of the 2014 Olympic champion in women's single skating in this context does not appear for the first time, and restores the chronology of events.
As you know, global problems on the doping front in Russia began in December 2014, when a film about the systematic use of doping in Russian athletics was released on the German TV channel ARD. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) created a commission led by Richard Pound, as a result of which the All-Russian Athletics Federation (ARAF) was suspended from full membership in the international association for a long eight years, and Russian athletes were deprived of the flag and anthem at international competitions.< br>
In parallel, WADA began to investigate the activities of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory and in the fall of 2015 accused its head Grigory Rodchenkov of destroying thousands of doping samples. However, after a few months, Rodchenkov turned from a defendant into a witness: after leaving for the United States, he gave an interview that had the effect of a nuclear explosion. The former head of the Moscow laboratory said that at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, a system was in place to replace dirty doping samples with clean ones. The process took place at night, for which a hole was allegedly drilled in the wall of the laboratory in Sochi, and the whole process was controlled by the special services. which we will not cite here for brevity, Rodchenkov said that he developed a special cocktail of three anabolic steroids, which he mixed with alcohol for their better assimilation by the body. According to the ex-head of the Moscow laboratory, many Russian participants in the 2012 and 2014 Olympic Games took this cocktail, which he called «Duchesse», on his recommendation.
In May 2016, WADA announced that it was setting up a team to investigate Rodchenkov's allegations. It was headed by independent Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren. The report on the results of the work of the group was published in two parts — in July and December 2016. He acknowledged the truth of Rodchenkov's words. Among the evidence released in this report is the so-called «Duchess» list, a computer document with the names of Russian athletes. According to the report, it was prepared before the Sochi Olympics and included athletes whose doping tests were manipulated. These athletes first allegedly used a doping cocktail, and then their «dirty» samples were changed to «clean» samples.Based on the publication of the McLaren report, the IOC created two commissions. One — led by Samuel Schmid — considered the facts of state interference in the anti-doping system in Russia. The second — Denis Oswald — studied the use of doping by athletes. The first commission recognized the facts testifying to the presence of a doping system in the country. As a result of the work of the second commission, Russia lost many medals from the Sochi Olympics. However, in February 2018, the Court of Arbitration for Sport returned some of them to their owners, canceling the guilty verdicts due to lack of evidence. Among those who were acquitted, for example, skier Alexander Legkov and skeletonist Alexander Tretyakov. But CAS left bobsledders Alexander Zubkov, Alexei Voevoda and a number of other athletes among those guilty of doping violations.
So what does Sotnikov have to do with it? The fact is that her name appeared on the same Duchess list, as reported by the Italian Gazzetta dello Sport in December 2016. It also said that her doping test was allegedly manipulated, since scratches were found on the container with the contents of the sample.
However, then, after almost a year's pause, the IOC announced that it had terminated the proceedings against the 2014 Olympic champion in women's single skating. They reported that they did not receive sufficient evidence that would testify to the violation of Sotnikova's anti-doping rules, as a result of which the case was closed.And at the end of November 2017, Elena Vyalbe, President of the Russian Ski Racing Federation, shared unexpected details. According to her, Rodchenkov himself asked to justify Sotnikova, despite the fact that she appeared on his list. This is probably why the case never went to trial. True, then it is not clear why Rodchenkov entered her name in his document and for what reason this legend about Duchess was considered as evidence of anti-doping rule violations by other athletes, if the presence on this list did not mean anything. But in the accusations of the former head of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory, there is a lot of incomprehensible things in general.
Well, it’s very incomprehensible, of course, in the light of all of the above, Sotnikova’s current statement that “doping was found” in her looks. After all, if you believe everything that was reported earlier, they couldn’t find anything from her, because even if she took something, the “dirty” sample should have been replaced with a “clean” one. And even more so, they could not open any «second sample» if there was no first one. Actually, this was also confirmed in RUSADA, where they said that they did not have information that doping was found on Sotnikova.
It is possible, of course, that the conversation in Sotnikova's interview at that moment touched the topic of a positive doping test of the winner of the 2022 Olympics team tournament Kamila Valieva, and Adelina, without going into details, decided to tell in simple terms that they tried to deprive her of the award after Sochi on this basis. But it would be better, of course, for her to select the wording more precisely and not cast a shadow on the wattle fence. In recent years, Russia has been so rinsed in doping accusations that there are not so many clean and unsullied Olympic champions left. And I would like it not to get smaller.