By Julien Pretot
BEIJING (Reuters) – 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 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,” German 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 that 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.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Michael Perry)
