“This’s purely about the medals. Because the Americans can’t get them, they continue to annoy and put pressure on everyone, primarily on Kamila.” Alena Leonova about Valieva’s doping case
Translation of Alena Leonova’s comments about Kamila Valieva’s doping case.
original source: Tatar-inform
Former Russian single skater, 2012 Worlds silver medalist, Alena Leonova commented on the Kamila Valieva’s doping case in the interview with Tatar-Inform. Here’s the translation of her comment.
“What do you think about it?
Alena Leonova: I can say only one thing. I am confident that Kamila is a clean athlete. And right now, I am very concerned and very sad for her psychological state.
Don’t you think that what is happening now is a farce? It’s all about the pressure from the United States and the desire to get Olympic gold medals?
Alena Leonova: Yes, of course. The whole situation is purely about the medals. Because the Americans can’t get them, they continue to annoy and put pressure on everyone, primarily on Kamila.
Besides, we would like to know the results earlier.
Alena Leonova: I agree. After all, Kamila’s first competitions start soon. And this is an unnecessary headache on the eve of the competitions.
What are your expectations for the new season from Valieva? She has updated her program.
Alena Leonova: I watched her performances. Both the short program and the free skate. I want to note that she looked quite convincing. Yes, there were no quadruple jumps, but there were some great triple jumps and programs.
Kamila clearly stands out among the others; she is the leader of the Russian team – that’s for sure. And I am a hundred percent sure that she will carry this flag with her head held high.”
One of the worst things about this is the fact that Valieva did not need to cheat in order to win. She has pure talent. Shame on her coach!
I absolutely do not want to see a child, who is also the greatest skater of her generation, punished for this. The adults around her are the criminals. There is, however, a very big BUT. If the athletes are not banned their coaches and team doctors will continue to do this at will. This is not only unfair to the other competitors. It is unfair to the athlete, who is given medications that may be dangerous to their health. IIt is an horrific situation
I agree.
There’s something people still don’t understand in Russia. Doping is not allowed for anyone, regardless of whether you are an amateur, professional, child, teenager, adult, disabled or old. Anyone who takes part in an official competition must be clean. If someone is not clean, all results after the positive doping result are invalid. The severity of the guilt of the person caught does not matter.
Leonova is 100% wrong on this. The competitive sport, first and foremost, is about fairness. So all athletes are expected to compete for medals by abiding this principle and following the rules, including no-doping. Anyone competes by doping is cheating, which breaches the rule and violates the principle, therefore no medal should be awarded, otherwise it is unfair to the other competitors and bad for the sport. Valieva was found doping with banned substance in her system, that is a fact, and needs to be dealt with. If anyone has put any pressure on her, they are precisely the people like Leonova who think everything is about medal and press to win medals at all costs, including doping. And once the doping was caught, the same group of people tried to ignore, deny and delay the solution of the problem, which of course resulted in keeping the problem and Valieva front and centre and angered the other athletes who were impacted by this. As a figure skating fan, I can no longer watching Valieva skating, I just can’t associate a sport that is supposed to be so beautiful with something so ugly and disgusting like doping.