Philipp Shvetsky: “What is indecent about Valieva’s Grandpa version and why it was subjected to massive criticism and ridicule — I still don’t understand” and “Those who accused Russian athletes should just be treated, or at least examined.”

Open letter from doctor Philipp Shvetsky.

original source: Sovsport dd. 23d October by Sergei Peremutov

Sovsport ask doctor Philipp Shvetsky to tell about his sports career in the first person, not hiding any controversial points. Shvetsky responded and wrote a letter – not just speaking to the journalist, as is usually the case, but writing personally. It was published on Spvsport with minimal editing. Here’s a translation.

“Part 1. “The Beginning”

“Let me answer the most common question directed at me: why, wherever I am, there is doping. It’s for one reason: it so happened that I immediately joined a group of elite athletes, where methods of non-sports competition, which concurrently accompany high-level sports around the world and are even provoked by the rules of anti-doping organizations themselves, were already practiced. Unfortunately, I ended up where doping was, is, and will be a weapon of sporting assassination.

In 1986, I started training at one of the strongest basketball schools in the Perm region, where I was taught the spirit of sport, achieving results through training at the limit of capability, fair play within the rules and on the edge of fouling. I believe these lessons allowed me to work for a long time in the future with Russian national teams.

With the collapse of the USSR, considerable damage was inflicted on high-achievement sports. The main direction was to eliminate the legacy of Soviet sports and the institution of the USSR national teams. The unique experience of training athletes based on the traditions of Soviet society is difficult to combat without understanding its foundation.

Yes, during the 1990s there was a slump in our country’s sports results on the international scene. However, at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, the “Red Machine” modestly but confidently showed its strength again. And our opponents had no choice but to concoct a new theatrical action aimed at undermining its success.

Part 2. “IV Bags”

It’s an old story from 2006, seemingly no longer relevant, but in skilled hands, it came alive and became the main tool and trigger in proving our guilt on February 9, 2022, when it was announced that the sample of Kamila Valieva tested positive. That was the culmination.

It all started in the year of her birth – when a provocation was orchestrated against our national rowing team. Already during the preparation for the selection for the 2008 Olympics, the Russian rowers began showing commendable results. Already then, “bites” against the Russian team began, which were not publicized, but appeared regularly.

In 2006, the Russian eight’s crew obtained a spot for Beijing. That same year, WADA published a ban on the use of intravenous infusions as a method of administering medication. I consider this was a correct step. There was a widespread corrupt practice of using this unsafe and ineffective method, imposed by foreign pharmaceutical companies for mass sale of their products. And, of course, after the ban, there was a residual tail caused by habit, belief in the advertised miracle. Moreover, all these drugs were not on the banned list, so they did not evoke a sense of violating anti-doping rules.

Then the main blow was dealt to the Russian team, which still raises doubts about the true reasons for the ban. The entire story leaves ambiguous impressions from start to finish. The very fact of finding a rolled-up package with Cyrillic writing in his garbage bin by some vigilant Swiss individual is surprising. It was in this package that the intravenous systems of Russian athletes were found. And this citizen was insightful enough to promptly bring the package directly to the office of the International Rowing Federation and the doping control of the Lucerne regatta, whose participants could presumably be Russian athletes.

Apparently, in Lucerne, local residents are so vigilant that any morning run starts with inspecting garbage bins for packages with Cyrillic scripts and they have instructions on where to take them. I presume that it’s a local tradition or amusement.

For WADA and the International Rowing Federation, it was left only to find a way to prove the guilt of the Russian team. Over a year, they thought, consulted, searched, and invented a new method in forming a proof base, finding sources of additional funding, and identified genetic material—DNA in the remnants of biomaterial from medical equipment.

All that remained was to take a genetic blood analysis of the entire Russian team, compare, and punish the guilty, although in our country it is not allowed to use biomaterial for genetic testing without consent. After finding three guilty rowers, investigators did not close the case for a long time. The real goal was to disqualify the entire federation, which was only possible with eight or more rule violations within a year. And they found them.

The entire team and athletes faced intense pressure. Interrogations with coercion to confess guilt and promises of minimal punishment. The guys believed, admitted their guilt, and received two-year disqualifications. The head coach of the national team and I tried to protect them and take the blame ourselves. But no one was interested in that. The objective was to sink the entire Russian national team and the federation for rowing, which was eventually done. Eight athletes and the federation received disqualifications.

All coaches and staff voluntarily resigned due to oversight. Two years later, along with the athletes, they were allowed to work with national teams again. It was a difficult time for everyone. The charge against me personally was based only on the interview of one rower on a federal television channel, where, if you listen carefully, he accuses me of being unable to carry out illegal actions such as failing to hit a vein and negligently disposing of his medical waste.

Part 3. “Russian Air”

The search for methods and means of athlete recovery is a global endeavor. Some methods are banned, some become legal. However, as practice shows, recently everything Russian is being banned. This has become an obsessive idea and a tool for manipulation for people in international sports, who write the rules of the game.

Of course, I was also interested in finding my own unique way to help athletes recover, prevent injuries, illnesses, and sudden death due to unphysiological loads. After all, all this is done to preserve the maximum trained skill in athletes. I found this method by using the inert part of air. Unfortunately, this development was banned immediately after the Sochi Olympics.

I was accused of continuing to use xenon on athletes after its ban. And that I allegedly did it in Sochi-2014, basing the accusations on scientific articles and patents published after 2014. Xenon was added to WADA’s list of prohibited substances in 2015, long after our open research, which my accusers cunningly took advantage of. Sorry, but the law does not work retroactively. We respect the rules of the game and therefore stopped using xenon on athletes, shifting the focus of its use to adapt astronauts at the space station.

If we touch on the theme of Sochi and accusations of systematic doping usage, I can say one thing: nonsense is nonsense because a sick mind cannot perceive any arguments. Those who accused Russian athletes should just be treated, or at least examined.

Part 4. “Meldonium”

In figure skating, international championships start in January, which explains why the first positive tests for meldonium in 2016 were found specifically in this sport, particularly with Olympic champion Ekaterina Bobrova.

At the height of anxiety, the coaching staff and the athlete sought an explanation. They found it in the “doping past” of the Russian national team’s doctor – a thesis that was supported by several Russian media outlets.

A week later, positive tests for meldonium were found in over two thousand athletes worldwide.

I ended up in a situation from which, unfortunately, I could only escape through a judicial process. The court examined credible facts of my biography, analyzed a decade-old case in rowing, and ruled in my favor. We reached an out-of-court settlement with the print publication, I wrote an article justifying the complexity of such issues – medical confidentiality, ethics. The coaching staff, the athlete, and the journalist apologized to me for their hasty conclusions, we reconciled, and I naively assumed that I had finally closed all questions regarding my past.

Here it would be appropriate to recall an interview with Eteri Tutberidze on one of the federal channels, which they cannot forget. Although she didn’t say anything criminal. Yes, she confirmed that they used meldonium as a legal recovery tool. But if it was banned as a Russian method, then we will look for another, because we follow WADA rules and do not use forbidden substances.

How can this be understood otherwise and used as an accusation in the case of Kamila Valieva?!

Part 5. “Fantasizer”

A strange story where in one of the streams a young figure skater let slip that the Tutberidze group uses doping and distributes capsules in pillboxes. This was a complete surprise to me – I have never even met this underage girl at any rink.

I found out that she was having a try-out with Eteri Tutberidze during the off-season, but nothing materialized from the collaboration. Regardless, all these childish fantasies were publicly dispelled by an investigation by RUSADA and the Russian Ministry of Sports. It was also strange to point out that due to persecution in Russia, she became a persona non grata and left to compete for Ukraine. This is simply beyond comment.

Part 6. “TRIMETAZIDINE”

Three surnames appeared in this story immediately. The others flickered like decorations. The first protagonist – the athlete herself, Kamila Valieva. The second – her coach Eteri Tutberidze. And me, Philipp Shvetskiy, as the doctor of the Russian national team.

In this drama, there was only one thing that united us all: we had no motive to use banned substances!

Valieva? She was a leader in world skating, and it would have been real suicide to use a banned ineffective substance, knowing about the inevitable doping test after the competition. Kamila always checked the legality of everything she took, including with specialists and Internet applications, and me.

To answer the second most frequent question to me: who was supposed to monitor the delay of the doping test results in the ADAMS system registry for the young athlete. Probably everyone. She, her parent, her entourage, official organizations at the admission to competitions. The other thing is that the main task at that time was to protect athletes from the COVID-19 virus, an infection which completely ruled out participation in the Olympic Games at any stage. Folks, even if you imagine that I’m the doping king, what kind of doping could we even talk about then! And think for yourselves — ignoring delays in the system only speaks in favor of the athlete and her entourage, confirming their confidence in the skater’s purity.

Eteri Tutberidze? I believe everyone knows about her situation, which generally excludes the intake of medicinal drugs bearing side effects and complications, especially for children.

Philipp Shvetskiy, smeared in doping ‘recidivist doctor’? The calculation was on the wave of propaganda from ‘anti-doping fighter’ Hajo Seppelt, which over 40 media joyfully picked up and turned it into a tsunami, drowning me without a chance for rescue. And the goal was achieved. There is a crime, there is a tool.

Speaking of the version, after information about the positive doping test, we had a few hours to express the possibility of trimetazidine getting into the body. As a clinic doctor, people periodically consult me about their relatives. And of course, I remembered that Kamila’s elderly relative, who had been driving her to training daily for six months and whom I had advised, suffered from cardiac pathology. Based on these data, I assumed a possible prescription of ‘Preductal’, a drug that is a standard treatment regime in Russia, which he confirmed.

What is indecent and illegal about this version and why it was subjected to massive criticism and ridicule — I still don’t understand. Based on this, we proved the possibility of an accidental single incidence of the drug entering the athlete’s system, which was confirmed by the decision of the CAS panel at the Games in Beijing. And, considering the athlete’s age, this decision should have remained unchanged. It should have but it didn’t.

Part 7. “Verdict”

I was called as a witness at the main hearing at CAS by the International Skating Union, and I realized that the entire accusation was based on the athlete’s testimony about taking two legal drugs (Hypoxen and L-carnitine) and the conclusion of the high court that, considering this, she could have taken a third — one that is banned.

As for the 60 types of medicines she allegedly took, the data is from documents through which the national team’s doctor reports about pre-collected drugs before departing for a sports event, not from the medical history confirming their intake. The range of listed drugs does not match the common information about the athlete’s drug dependency.

At the hearings, I emphasized that for us it matters whether a drug is banned or allowed and the indications for its prescription, as pharmacological load and safety are a priority in treatment worldwide, especially in sports, where practically all medicinal drugs reduce an athlete’s condition.

Regarding trimetazidine, its efficiency was studied once by French researchers. It was the only attempt to prove its efficiency over a course of three to six months. There have been no more studies. It was included in WADA’s monitoring in 2009, long before meldonium, which, incidentally, has no proven efficacy and is not used in clinical practice.

Part 8. “Conclusions”

Unfortunately, over the past 20 years, Russia has been overshadowed by a dark cloud of a doping cover, skillfully and artificially sewn by our adversaries. Where I, as a direct participant in the events, was involuntarily dragged into. I believe that considering the discrepancy of facts of my biography publicly disseminated, we can extrapolate them to refute the accusatory speculations in the doping story of Kamila Valieva in Beijing and Russian sports in general.

I am not sure if my information will be perceived objectively today. I think not, but it is my duty to leave my perspective in history, and in the future, it will itself determine its significance and correspondence to reality.

Unfortunately, Russia has many external and internal ill-wishers who often unite to inflict damage in various industries.

It’s hard to find a more consistent opponent of the use of banned substances than I am. I managed in court to provide an official document with a signature and seal for every inaccurate fact presented by opponents.

Today, the prevalent opinion that high sports achievements cannot be reached without exogenous interventions has taken root. And, just as some athletes are prone to search for a miracle aiding in achieving their goal, so too is it comfortable for a layperson to explain someone else’s success as a rule violation, rather than work at the limits of possibility.

And it is this opinion that must necessarily be fought against!”

Related topics: Ekaterina Bobrova Dmitri Soloviev, Eteri Tutberidze, Kamila Valieva, Philipp Shvetsky