Gleb Smolkin: “No more questions about Kamila Valieva. Diana won’t speak. She can talk, but not to you and not to these questions.”
Gleb Smolkin, who competes in ice dance with Diana Davis, about their performance in rhythm dance at the Beijing Olympics.
Smolkin and Davis scored 71.66 points and are currently in the 14th place
Gleb Smolkin: We hoped that we would be able to set ourselves up as usual, as for any competition. At the moment, we can say that we managed to do that, there was no extra excitement. I think it was our best rhythm dance of the season. We have not seen the video how it looked in the recording, we have not seen the protocols yet.
The points are not the maximum, we have already scored higher, but we understand that this is the Olympic Games – our first such competition. Why is Diana silent? Diana analyzes performance.
It’s amazing that we managed to qualify here and our young pair has the opportunity to compete at the Olympic Games, to represent our country. We are happy, looking forward to show tango, it can give us safety margine for the future.
We flew together with everyone, we initially set ourselves up for individual competitions. Got a chance to cheer [for the team], the Olympics are the Olympics, an amazing event.
The Match TV channel also reported that American journalists asked the skater questions about doping and Kamila Valieva.
Gleb Smolkin: I’ve said it three times already. No more questions about Kamila Valieva. She is a wonderful, wonderful skater, she has a great future. It doesn’t matter what happened. I don’t have any thoughts on this. We are done with this topic.
[In response to a request for Diana to speak]: No, she won’t. She can talk, but not to you and not to these questions.
source: sports.ru, tass.ru, matchtv.ru
Related topics: Diana Davis Gleb Smolkin
I have to agree with you. If she did in fact dope, she has to be suspended whether she knew or not. The same happened with Andreea Raducan and she was stripped of her aa around title so I do not know how this is any different (other than Valieva’s drug enhanced performance in December). She’s an amazing skater but was this doping going on longer than this that it could mask her doping. What frustrates me if this happens to be true is why did the result come so late?! This robbed Tutktamysheva of the chance to compete in the Olympics and robbed another Russian lady of competing in the team competition. I am happy they have delayed the awards ceremony in case they are stripped so another team is not robbed of the experience. If the coaching staff was in on this, they should receive a lifetime ban from coaching. I feel bad for her teammates if they are stripped of their medal, I feel bad for the US and Japanese teams as they wait for their medal and I feel bad for the Canadian team who are waiting in limbo to see whether they will be upgraded to a medal or not. Just a messy situation overall.
What can she has to say? The doping case it is reality. The coaching staff is to blame, maybe Waliewa too. She is almost 16 and not a fool. With 15/16 a person knows exactly what is right and what a crime. She had big advantages in the last months in training with this drug. No question- for the Olympic time she made a break with Trimet. But the doctor was wrong with the time scedule- team doctor or a private doctor. The break was to late. Positiv in December means no participation 2 months later. Crystal clear. Why she is a problem in the Olympics- there is no problem she should not have been in Peking. Why she could have the permission to battle in the way of a betrayal with other honest working sportscolleages? Also at RussNat and Europeans? I cannot understand. Stop the participation- at least now. It has to be punished. Doping is not allowed- not with 15 and not older. There is no question. If she starts next week, she betrays all the sportsmades except perhaps her teammates. How dishgusting. Simply insolent, no conscience, without any honour. There must be also a special character of the girl by herself to make a veto against the decision to cancel the participation. That she is not ashamed. Unbeleavable. Doping is obviously in Russia a business as usual. Stop it- keep the sport clean. This has to be shown now. It is time.