Figure skating great Katarina Witt backed Russian sensation Kamila Valieva and pointed the finger at her entourage as the 15-year-old practices for her next event at the Beijing Olympics amid reports she tested positive for a banned substance.
Valieva has trained twice since Russian media reported on Wednesday she had returned a positive test, with newspapers RBC and Kommersant naming the drug as Trimetazidine, which is typically used to treat angina.
¡°Those latest terrible olympic skating news, have honestly touched me. Kamila Valieva is a young girl and child prodigy, whose highly difficult performances and grace enchanted the whole world at only 15, a minor, depending on adults and she is not to blame here,¡± Witt, an Olympic champion for East Germany in 1984 and 1988, wrote on her Facebook page.
¡°This scandal is a dramatic turning point for her young and promising career and I sincerely hope that there are enough people by her side to support, to protect and encourage her.¡±
Witt, 56, insisted Valieva could not be held responsible for the failed test, pointing her finger at the teenager¡¯s entourage.
¡°As an athlete, you always follow the advice of your confidants, in this case she probably followed her coach and medical team,¡± she said.
¡°It is a shame, and the responsible adults should be banned from the sport forever!!! What they knowingly did to her, if true, cannot be surpassed in inhumanity and makes my athlete¡¯s heart cry infinitely.
¡°I admire Kamila as a radiant star, who burst into the orbit of the international skating world, and I still very much wish she has come to stay.¡±
Russia won the team event at the Beijing Olympics on Monday, but the medal ceremony on Wednesday was delayed for legal reasons, with Russian media reporting Valieva had failed a drug test.
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