Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva’s drug test for the Winter Olympics came back positive for trimetazidine commonly known as TMZ. Kamila is a 15-year-old figure skater that was expected to pull the gold for her team. But with the supposed anxiety surrounding talks of her disqualification for illegal doping she fumbled during her routine, Falling multiple times and executing jumps poorly. These accidents led to her placing fourth in the women’s individual figure skating event and her teammate, Anna Shcherbakova, taking first. While Kamila is the center of the scandal, the team of adults that surround her are the ones in the spotlight.
Trimetazidine is a commonly used drug in some parts of the world, used mainly by older people to treat angina. Angina is a chest pain caused by low blood flow to the heart, TMZ increases this blood flow and eases the pain. When given to a 15-year-old figure skater, it is suspected but not proven to increase endurance. This possibility of endurance gain is also met with side effects of the drug that include nausea, dizziness and fatigue. All symptoms that are less than ideal for athletes.
Kamila is suspected to have accidentally taken the drug from her grandfather who is on the medication. TMZ is normally given in pill form so her team has argued that there is a possibility she drank from the same glass as him, or it was dissolved in something and she drank it without knowing. All of these excuses have holes in how they could be true or not but, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) decided that because she is a minor, taking her out of the competition and taking a normal course of action that would be taken with an adult competitor would cause irreversible damage to her future career, so she was allowed to continue competing.
Kamila Valieva’s coach Eteri Tutberidze is known for being Russia’s best figure skating coach. Having her students train for 12-13 hours a day, and being incredibly strict with them, known as the “Iron Lady” to past skaters. Few of these students have been asked if doping her skaters is something she would do to get an extra edge in the competition but they have all said that it’s not something she needs to or would do. On the other side of her team is their doctor, who has in the past been found guilty of illegal doping. Filipp Shvetsky was the team doctor for the Russian rowing team in 2007 and was banned by Russia for his illegal practices. Many suspect that if she did take the drug with or without knowing she did, it was because of him.
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