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On Thursday evening, the head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), Travis Tygart, said that the month-and-a-half pause announced by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in the hearings in the case of Kamila Valieva “smacks of further manipulation by the Russians.” Sports correspondent talks about how an official, whose position requires objectivity and restraint, became a herald of outright hatred towards the athletes of a particular country.
No, in Russia, of course, there are also plenty of intemperate comments, both on the Kamila Valieva case and on any other issues related to the topic of doping. For example, Honored Trainer of the USSR Tatyana Anatolyevna Tarasova, who has recently acted as an expert in many areas, said: “We just want this story to end as soon as possible. It didn’t even need to start! And there they expect that things will happen last forever. Someday it may end, they don’t care that an absolutely innocent girl has been waiting for a fair decision from evil “aunts” and “uncles” for so long.
It is difficult to take such statements seriously. After all, a positive doping test is an objective thing. And there is no specific politicization in it. A doping violation requires an investigation, and if it took a year and a half — and now it will take even longer — then there are more advantages than disadvantages in this fact. Of the latter, yes, the athletes who have not yet been awarded Olympic medals are waiting. The longer they wait, the further into the past the failed moment of their triumph is. By the way, not only Americans, Japanese and Canadians are waiting, but also Russians — six skaters, including Valieva herself.
But what is definitely a plus is that there will be no superficial and pre-made CAS solution. He would have been accepted without bothering with pauses or asking for additional documents. At the same time, they would play into the hands of all those who press for pity — and this is, first of all, the American team, which has already demonstrated cases for medals and made statements through the mouths of various of its members. Our people are patiently silent, the Japanese are patiently silent, even the Canadians are not speaking out. But the US team is unbearable. But no, the CAS judges carefully consider the case, since the fate of perhaps the most talented figure skater of an entire generation is at stake. Although, if we were talking about the fate of any athlete, the approach should have been the same.
However, attention is drawn to the fact that the obvious pressure on the bodies leading the process — currently this is, of course, the Court of Arbitration for Sport — was joined by a person who seems to be supposed by his position to be as objective as possible. This is the head of the US Anti-Doping Agency, Travis Tygart, who in an interview with USA Today said:
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«Of course, we stand for full and proper procedure, but this smacks of more manipulation by the Russians. The system must change to ensure that this does not continue.»
It is forgivable when such vociferous and, for example, American figure skater Vincent Zhou makes unsubstantiated statements. For example, he believes that he is not awarded medals due to the machinations of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) and CAS. Although in fact, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to postpone the awards ceremony. But when such things come from the lips of a serious official, this is…
No, it's not surprising. After all, this is not the first time Tygart has performed such sketches. You don’t have to look far for examples. In the fall of 2022, when, in full compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code, RUSADA announced that it did not intend to disclose details about Valieva’s case due to her status as a “protected person” (due to the fact that she was 15 years old at the time of the violation), the head of USADA was indignant that «it makes a mockery of the process.» And during the Beijing Olympics, Tygart threatened those involved in the scandal surrounding Valieva with criminal liability in accordance with the so-called “Rodchenkov Act.” Moreover, the investigation had not even begun yet, but the chief of the US Anti-Doping Agency was insisting with all his might that “Russian doping, state or otherwise, took away from us what we should have been celebrating — namely the Olympic ideals, properly conducted competitions and fair victories of athletes.»
And he has dozens of such statements in his background. Their hatred of Russian sports is such that the thought comes to mind: was Tygart in a past life a member of some punitive body? We won’t clarify so as not to stoop to the level of this official, but it’s simply unclear — where then does he have such an obsessive desire to quickly deal with unwanted Russians?
But, fortunately, in the Court of Arbitration for Sport Tygart doesn't work. This body, although we sometimes make critical remarks about it, still tries to maintain objectivity. In the same case of the Olympic athletes in Sochi, most of the results that were initially annulled by the IOC were restored and our athletes received their medals back. And the sanctions for erasures in the database of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory were greatly softened by CAS. There were other decisions in favor of the Russians — up to complete acquittal. So there is faith in the court’s fair decision in Kamila’s case. The caravan is still moving — no matter how some people themselves remember who try to stop it with their barking.