Russian figure skating coach Eteri Tutberidze says she does not doubt the innocence of Kamila Valieva, as the teenage star fights a legal battle to compete at the Beijing Olympics after a failed doping test.
Valieva, 15, is awaiting a decision on whether she will be able to appear in the ladies’ singles figure skating event in Beijing after drug testing officials confirmed a positive sample taken in December.
Valieva has already helped the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) to figure skating gold in the team event in China, before the news of her positive doping test was confirmed on Friday.
Speaking after training on Saturday, Tutberidze said she is certain that Valieva is clean after traces of the heart drug trimetazidine were detected.
“I want to say that I’m absolutely certain Kamila is innocent and clean. For us that’s not a theory, but an axiom, it doesn’t need to be proved,” Tutberidze told the media in her first significant comments since the row erupted.
“I understand there are certain protocols which you cannot go without. We haven’t abandoned the sportswoman [Valieva] by any means, we are with our sportswomen in tough times and happy times.”