Alexander Zhulin: “Make an American woman who has passed puberty and gained a little weight perform at least 3-3 clean – none of them will be able to.”
Alexander Zhulin about the doping case of Kamila Valieva.
Many are very impressed by your statements in the media. Sometimes you speak very harshly. What is it—unwillingness to put up with what is happening, courage?
Alexander Zhulin: It often happens that I say something and then regret it. But in the case of Kamila Valieva, I was just shaking, because I understood very well that learning to do quadruple jumps the way she does … What kind of doping can we talk about? That’s bullshit.
And I saw how the media mocked Eteri and Kamila when the girl could not even enter the ice rink calmly; she was shaking. They arranged this before the individual competitions.
I just lost my nerve. And since I had already written a book, I was blown away—I wanted to speak out and write something. It seemed like I was doing it right. I then wrote an open letter to Bach because I was just shaking with anger at that moment. It was very pleasant that so many people in our country supported my position. We need to talk about it.
When Vyacheslav Alexandrovich Fetisov was in WADA, everything was fine; we negotiated with everyone. In our sport, as in politics, it is necessary to negotiate. When Vyacheslav Ivanovich Koloskov was at FIFA, we were treated very seriously. When Vitaly Georgievich Smirnov was in the ROC, we were also taken seriously.
WADA now has 12 Canadians, 12 Americans, and 12 British members. So what do we want? So that they recognize Valieva as a clean athlete? They won’t talk to us. Same as in all politics. <…>
How can Kamila overcome this at the age of 16?
Alexander Zhulin: Firstly, I think Kamila is a very smart girl. Secondly, I think she is a very good person. Thirdly, it seems to me that she has a good coaching staff; they will help her a lot—they have already helped and will continue to help.
I think people like Kamila Valieva will not disappear. It will just be insanely sad if she is deprived (of medals) and forbidden to train. This is a tragedy.
So it’s bad for everyone, and it’s bad for America too. After all, the competition has gone, and the world star has gone. What amazed me even more was that at the Nationals, Valieva jumped these quads like this (snaps his fingers) — at such a great height!
What kind of doping can we talk about? Make an American woman who has passed puberty and gained a little weight perform at least 3-3 clean – none will be able to. And Kamila Valieva makes clean quads.
But Kamila, it is not only about jumps, this is magic.
Alexander Zhulin: I understand. When she lands a jump, her leg goes 180 degrees. She was very much wanted in ballet, but she herself chose figure skating.
I’m sure if she did ballet, she would be an outstanding ballerina. There is no doping there. But I think sports are more interesting. I will remain of the opinion that the world has not yet seen such figure skaters as Kamila Valieva.
Related topics: Alexander Zhulin, Kamila Valieva
Never liked him, he treated women horrible
I bet that skater that have passed puberty will be able to jump the way russians teens can IF THEY GET TO HAVE ENOUGH MUSCLES. I feel most female skaters don’t have enough muscles to even think of jumping those jumps.
“… and that’s why we keep our female skaters on the steady diet of puberty blockers, powdered shakes and the miracle water from grandpa’s glass.”
People like him give that impression of Russians being the dirty, backwards thinking barbarians
Gracie gold continues to do 3/3 Bradie Tennell and others. The USA just doesn’t dope.
“… and that’s the reason why we Russians keep our skaters on a steady diet of puberty blockers and powdered supplements, washed down with the miracle water from grandpa’s glass”.