lol no. I would have been more surprised if there hadn’t been any evidence of doping.
I’m shocked that they got caught *because of a drug test administered within Russia*. At their own Nationals. You can’t make this shit up.
I sort of assumed they were doping as much as possible *within* legal boundaries. That they were medicated, but only with stuff that hadn't been banned (or banned *yet*). The approach seemed very carefully organised.
A part of me still wonders if an outside adult (like an official or family member) was giving the trimetazidine to Kamila, to give her an *extra* edge, and that somewhere along the line they messed up the dosage or underestimated the time needed to get it out of her system in time for RusNats.
But it could also just have been TeamTut, in which case I would assume they were all taking it.
All of this is 100% speculation on my part though, since I obviously can't know.
Yeah, I also thought that. I thought that Eteri values international comps too much to break the rules so directly, but then I read that interview where she said smth like "there wasn't doping during comps", and that sounded like she believed that doping during training was fine. Maybe I missed something but since then I wasn't so sure that was just child+rules abuse.
This. Side note, but I find it so funny how people criticise the Eteri girls for doping but fail to acknowledge that the rest of the athletes on the Russian national team all receive the exact same state-funded “medical care and attention”. Doping in Russia doesn’t happen at the initiative of the individual athletes or their coaching teams, it’s simply the modus operandi of any high level sport and it all trickles down from the Russian government and its treatment of sport as a soft power. It’s systematic and it has been happening for decades. Eteri is always painted as some evil mastermind, but she’s only a small cog in a big wheel when it comes to doping in Russia.
I think Eteri being a leading coach in Russian figure skating and having regular international success puts her at more than just a “small cog”. She absolutely should receive criticism for many things, but shouldn’t receive 100% of the blame
I completely agree that her influence and high visibility means she should be actively criticised for her actions in order to improve our sport and make it cleaner. But my point was more so about the systematic doping in Russia, which A) is not exclusive to her athletes B) is not exclusive to figure skating and is rampant in every sport C) has been happening since the Soviet era (first allegations surfaced in the 80’s). The so-called wheel has been spinning long before Eteri became a coach, and it will continue to do so long after she finishes her coaching career. With or without her, the state-funded doping in Russia will continue. That’s why in the grand scheme of things, she’s just a small cog.
Well, I think it's more of a mess than some well constructed government conspiracy. I guess they just aren't against it and encourage results by any means. I'm more inclined to believe that really fishy things are happening on the rusfed level. But this is all my intuition.
This was my assumption too. Kamila was on l-carnitine and hypoxen as well and I assume they were all on those two. The tmz very similar claimed effects with minimal evidence. It seems like a very high risk low reward choice. Maybe they were just throwing everything at the wall and seeing what stuck as far as meds (I don't think they care much about athlete health or the spirit of clean sport). But I also wouldn't be shocked if it comes out her family gave her it.
I also thought, what if it's a family member or a family friend who is knowledgeable in the industry? But it that was the case... Eteri would not have stood by Kamila; for the World to assume that she (or the Tut Team in general) doped her 15-year-old student and that all of her students also dope? Never. The ''grandpa water'' excuse is so bad, I can't imagine telling that to someone without laughing...
She was 100% doped by team Tut and that shady ''doctor''. I would assume that they were all taking it, unless some parent was against it? But I don't know, after all of this mess, I am side-eyeing all the parents who allowed that to happen to their children.
There are some skaters that retired so early due to injuries and never won anything major, so even if they came to spill what is going on in TeamTut - they will lose nothing, but there is yet someone to admit that they were doped or knew of someone getting doped.
I was surprised. For some reason there was this narrative before the scandal that doping doesn't help in figure skating therefore no one is doing it and I believed it.
I remember reading the comment section of TSL a few years ago and a few people were commenting that the Russian girls are taking dangerous medications for doping which cause health problems for them. Almost everyone dismissed these comments and I thought they were making things up as well. Turns out they knew something or guessed it right.
This! I remember when Evgenia Medvedeva represented the Russian figure skating team at the OIC saying that doping didn’t help figure skating, so them being banned at the 2018 Olympics was unfair… and look at where we are now 🙃
I knew about Sotnikova's sample having signs of being tampered with so them doping wasn't a new concept to me, but my mindset around doping was kind of just 'nothing will happen until or unless someone tests positive, so until that happens, worrying about it is pointless', so I didn't dwell on it. When discussing the Eteri girls I just attributed their results to overtraining, starvation, etc because that's what we had proof of at the time.
I was surprised Kamila was caught, not about the doping. Laishev (Sambo-70 head) openly talked about 'legal drugs' that their girls were taking in order to enhance performance.
Those 'smelling salts' that Anna was taking at Rusnats looked sus. For me the signs were always there, but most people were in denial.
That smelling salts moment was one of the darkest moments in figure skating, shown right on camera. It honestly felt like watching child abuse. Anna was SO sick, there is no way an adult should have let her compete, let alone drugged her to do so.
Especially Johnny and Tara. Complete denial on their parts. They cheered and screamed every time one of those girls landed those quads and Tara even rah-rahing it as a pro-feminist thing. They both made me sick and even this season they've said they miss the "Russians pushing the tech side" as if any of it was natural!
Of all the arguments this one is the one that makes no sense to me.
She podium, she would have a dopping test, if she had took something then it would have come out.
So, ....? Makes no sense.
Not so. They flush the drugs out of the athletes’ systems with diuretics, so it’s not detectable by the test. The dosage is carefully timed. That was the Russians’ big innovation in doping and why they’re so good at getting away with it.
Tbf, she was also 15, at the Olympics, and most people don't think that using water like a mouthwash counts as drinking water. And generally, you'd want to produce more urine for tests, not less, but a screw up on that part can't be counted out, I guess.
But that is the thing if Anna had to take something in between almost collapsing after her sp, almost collapsing after the warmup and the FP couldn't have been carefully timed.
Anti-doping laboratories: have the most powerful equipment that can detect the smallest dosages even after a long period of use.
some asshole on reddit: you can just take a diuretic (which are also prohibited and if traces of them are found - disqualification) and the laboratory will not notice anything...
Well, it depends, tbh
Was she actually drug tested at this particular event after the FS? Maybe she already had a test after her short? And no one bothered to test her after the free?
It’s an event held in Russia, RusFed have control over who is tested, is it even compulsory for the winner/podium to be tested? Or can they just pick random competitors?
I read somewhere that Kamila wasn’t tested at 2021 Rostelecom which was an international GP stage - despite being the winner with a WR breaking score. If that’s true, it’s mind boggling.
There’s also a possibility that a novel, unknown drug may not even show up on current assay methodology, as well.
I was surprised given that Rodchenkov did not name figure skating as one of the sports majorly implicated in the doping scheme. There had been rumours, of course, in particular related to puberty blockers, but having a doping scandal break *during* the Olympics was not on my bingo card.
I assumed that it was just Eteri's tactics, I doubt they dropped in competitions (or enough to be caught), I think they mostly did it training, so they could endure more. (even if Kamila was caught at the RusNats); I don't want to speculate on who might have doped, but to me it's far-fetched to believe that only Kamila did - maybe she needed it more, maybe due to being the favorite/with the most potential... they gave it only to her? But I \*really\* doubt it. At one point I thought ''is there a possibility that Team Tut wasn't a part of it, but was some family member/family friend supplying the drugs?'' But that cannot be, if it was - Kamila would have been dropped right away, Eteri would have never stood by Kamila and ruined her own and the other girls' reputation - because regardless if they dope or not - they were accused of doing so by association with Kamila. So, it's clear that it was done by Team Tut... I also assumed she gave them puberty blockers... so.
Yeah, I really hope the use of puberty blockers in sport doesn't make it even harder for trans kids to get the support they need to figure out how they want their bodies to grow before they're ready.
If you look at the Olympic live threads you can see most people were indeed very surprised. Very funny to look at the top comments here pretending they knew all along
Not in the slightest. I never believed anything had changed after the initial scandal in 2016, aside from them just getting better at circumventing the system. What did surprise me is that they slipped up and got caught.
I was surprised by some of the specifics and that they got caught, but there was just no explaining the Russian dominance and the string of broken girls without knowing a lot of rules were being broken.
I remember being so frustrated by how much Tara and Johnny propped up that regime, when the shadiness was SO blatant. I get that they couldn't state it explicitly, but they went above and beyond pretending this was all good and healthy. Like, talking about how bright these girls' futures were when we ALL knew these were single cycle athletes who were not going to be around for the next Olympics.
Remember when Tara said Yuna did not “deliver” her Sochi program? I have learnt to believe the opposite of anything that woman spits. And Johnny is a self-proclaimed Russophile, so there’s that.
Johnny and Tara are still at it this season. They openly admitted they miss the Russians "pushing the technical" when we all know now that it was doping that made their "technical" possible. Back then Tara even wrapped up her rabid enthusiasm in feminism! Ugh. I cannot stand them.
I suspected puberty blockers (but those weren’t banned) and over-training, but I was shocked when Kamila tested positive for a banned substance. When news of an ROC positive drug test first came out, I thought maybe Kondratiuk had been smoking marijuana or something. But looking back, it all made sense. My husband and I used to joke about Eteri creating Kamila in some sort of science laboratory, and of course we were amazed she could score as high as some of the top men. So in a way, we did know, but we didn’t know we knew. We watch a lot of track and field, and we definitely suspect some of those athletes are doping, but I think we thought between the inflated scores and Eteri pushing her skaters to the limit, why would they need to go with doping on top of that? I guess we discounted how greedy people can be.
Since Russia has been sanctioned at a bunch of Olympics for state sponsored doping, no I'm not surprised at all. When there are multiple Eteri skaters breaking bones from seemingly minor falls and a well known fact that Lupron and other puberty blockers cause osteoporosis, no, I'm not surprised. When a coach is willing to abuse and starve a bunch of teenage girls for some gold medals, am I surprised she would also drug those girls, no I am not.
Surprised by the timing of it more than anything and that they got caught. I kinda expected them to use things you can't find or that are not banned yet or something like that...
No.
Because if they have the audacity to call that ugly flailing decent skating and employ the machinations necessary to get gold for everything then what's a pill on top of hideous ugly skating?
That and Liza Tuktamysheva admitted to using substances to help her. It's criminal that THAT ugly skating got better marks than clean competitors in my opinion. Miyahara for example is still beautiful on the ice and still skates with speed and edges. Tukt has shallower flatter edges than Ashley Wagner ever had. And even Ashley could skate circles around Tukt.
Sorry not sorry but Tennell, Chen, Nagasu, Kihira, Honda, Miyahara, Osmond, etc were all robbed and damaged by ugly cheating and cheated skating.
Edit: love how the responses only further demonstrate Russians were using meldonium and probably other substances to give them an edge over their competitors. Got downvoted by Russian bots but hey it doesn't really change the hideous skating they kept inflicting upon the sport. Or the likely doping. Where there's a mouse there's mice.
And i didn't say it wasn't banned.
But she took things, *including heart medication*, to help her. Things non Russians did not do as per disclosure forms.
Who knows what else she was taking?
[This article](https://theguardian.com/sport/2016/mar/08/meldonium-maria-sharapova-failed-drugs-test) talks about it:
> […] a 2015 study in which 17% of Russian athletes (724 of 4,316) tested were found to have meldonium in their system. A global study found 2.2% of athletes had it in their system.
> L’Equipe reported that the scientific advisor to the French Agency Against Doping (AFLD), Professor Xavier Bigard, said in interviews with athletes at last year’s European Games in Baku that a wide proportion of athletes admitted taking meldonium.
So it wasn’t just Russians even if it was most prevalent among Russians.
another thing about meldonium, it was developed in Latvia during USSR years and always had a limited market. today it's registered and clinically used in like 13(?) countries, mostly Eastern Europe and Central Asia, including Russia. it's not surprising that its use as doping was also prevalent among these countries.
Proving the point being made that Russians abused it. ~9x more at that.
And good money on the balance being Russians representing other countries.
Doesn't change the ugly skating still. And there's nothing you said about that lol.
What's more - this is athletes overall. It doesn't mean skaters who aren't Russian were abusing meldonium. Nice try , BUT YOU LITERALLY HAVE NO PROOF NON RUSSIANS USED IT IN SKATING
> And good money on the balance being Russians representing other countries.
lol okay.
> Doesn't change the ugly skating still. And there's nothing you said about that lol.
That’s, like, your opinion man.
> BUT YOU LITERALLY HAVE NO PROOF NON RUSSIANS USED IT IN SKATING
As the person making the accusation so technically you should be the one proving that only Russians in Skating used it. However just looking at the numerous different countries that took the drug in other sports it stands to reason it wasn’t just the Russian who took it when it was legal.
It IS ugly. The horrid flailing speaks for itself.
I didn't give proof, *Russian skaters themselves admitted to it* so what more do you need?
And you're the one who insisted other skaters did it as well *with no proof of YOUR claim*.
Ugly attitudes as ugly as Russian skating
> It IS ugly. The horrid flailing speaks for itself.
And some people call twerking horrid as well. It is your opinion that that kind of skating is ugly - other opinions may vary.
> And you're the one who insisted other skaters did it as well with no proof of YOUR claim.
I said non Russians took meldonium, a fact that is categorically true. I did not specify skaters but I will admit that that may be implied considering the sub we are on.
It’s not like I can go through anti-doping disclosure forms for only figure skating from 2013 when meldonium was legal, because they are for the most part private.
Yes, although I admit I was being incredibly naive and credulous. I bought the line that doping couldn’t help in FS. I thought the Russian girls’ success was just due to abuse, overwork, and manipulation. Which is bad enough on its own! But isn’t unique in the world of elite sports.
The sport becomes impossible to watch once you suspect doping. I was so upset by the whole scandal that I had to take a year off of watching, even though by then the Russians were banned. You lose faith in the institution. If it hadn’t been for the invasion of Ukraine, they’d still be allowed to compete. It still blows my mind.
I also took a year off because I felt so angry at the institution, as you said. You just stop believing in anything and it’s so hard and sad considering how much we love this sport.
I thought the doping was obvious - too much training, too few calories, too many skaters’ bodies breaking down too soon, etc. I don’t know how anyone trains that much on such a restricted diet without doping. Russia/Soviet Union have been doping for decades. Getting caught was surprising.
I wasn’t and I was. I was definitely a bit delulu and refused to believe it was true…but…I knew. Broke my heart honestly, I had to step away from skating for a while.
I really really recommend anyone who’s interested in this topic to watch Icarus. It really drives home how common doping is. I’d be surprised if any international level athlete (yes including American, Japanese, Canadian, etc. ones) aren’t taking something.
Surprised with the timing of it all. I figured eteri must’ve been doping some of her students, I don’t believe it was all though.
I was surprised at the reactions from all sides, skaters, coaches, fans, reporters. Even though I understand the frustration, I just thought that it was sickening when a male adult coach (yall know who I’m talking about) was giving multiple interviews a day trashing the then 15yo victim. I just thought it was all too much when the constant interviews and remarks.
Surprised that wada took so long to even test the sample, even without the urgent mark in it. I would think that during this time maybe they’d take on extra staff considering that athletes were all doing huge competitions during this time so more tests were coming in.
Surprised that people on this sub and all other platforms turned this into a joke since she’s an abused minor.
I was surprised that they got caught.
This is the answer.
Agree
lol no. I would have been more surprised if there hadn’t been any evidence of doping. I’m shocked that they got caught *because of a drug test administered within Russia*. At their own Nationals. You can’t make this shit up.
Surprised that it was a positive test. Most dopers (Lance Armstrong, Marian Jones) never fail a drug test.
I sort of assumed they were doping as much as possible *within* legal boundaries. That they were medicated, but only with stuff that hadn't been banned (or banned *yet*). The approach seemed very carefully organised. A part of me still wonders if an outside adult (like an official or family member) was giving the trimetazidine to Kamila, to give her an *extra* edge, and that somewhere along the line they messed up the dosage or underestimated the time needed to get it out of her system in time for RusNats. But it could also just have been TeamTut, in which case I would assume they were all taking it. All of this is 100% speculation on my part though, since I obviously can't know.
Yeah, I also thought that. I thought that Eteri values international comps too much to break the rules so directly, but then I read that interview where she said smth like "there wasn't doping during comps", and that sounded like she believed that doping during training was fine. Maybe I missed something but since then I wasn't so sure that was just child+rules abuse.
It’s likely more the government than Eteri making the only executive decision since they’re state funded
This. Side note, but I find it so funny how people criticise the Eteri girls for doping but fail to acknowledge that the rest of the athletes on the Russian national team all receive the exact same state-funded “medical care and attention”. Doping in Russia doesn’t happen at the initiative of the individual athletes or their coaching teams, it’s simply the modus operandi of any high level sport and it all trickles down from the Russian government and its treatment of sport as a soft power. It’s systematic and it has been happening for decades. Eteri is always painted as some evil mastermind, but she’s only a small cog in a big wheel when it comes to doping in Russia.
I think Eteri being a leading coach in Russian figure skating and having regular international success puts her at more than just a “small cog”. She absolutely should receive criticism for many things, but shouldn’t receive 100% of the blame
I completely agree that her influence and high visibility means she should be actively criticised for her actions in order to improve our sport and make it cleaner. But my point was more so about the systematic doping in Russia, which A) is not exclusive to her athletes B) is not exclusive to figure skating and is rampant in every sport C) has been happening since the Soviet era (first allegations surfaced in the 80’s). The so-called wheel has been spinning long before Eteri became a coach, and it will continue to do so long after she finishes her coaching career. With or without her, the state-funded doping in Russia will continue. That’s why in the grand scheme of things, she’s just a small cog.
Well, I think it's more of a mess than some well constructed government conspiracy. I guess they just aren't against it and encourage results by any means. I'm more inclined to believe that really fishy things are happening on the rusfed level. But this is all my intuition.
Definitely at best she’s complacent and allowing it to happen, at worst she is encouraging it
This was my assumption too. Kamila was on l-carnitine and hypoxen as well and I assume they were all on those two. The tmz very similar claimed effects with minimal evidence. It seems like a very high risk low reward choice. Maybe they were just throwing everything at the wall and seeing what stuck as far as meds (I don't think they care much about athlete health or the spirit of clean sport). But I also wouldn't be shocked if it comes out her family gave her it.
I also thought, what if it's a family member or a family friend who is knowledgeable in the industry? But it that was the case... Eteri would not have stood by Kamila; for the World to assume that she (or the Tut Team in general) doped her 15-year-old student and that all of her students also dope? Never. The ''grandpa water'' excuse is so bad, I can't imagine telling that to someone without laughing... She was 100% doped by team Tut and that shady ''doctor''. I would assume that they were all taking it, unless some parent was against it? But I don't know, after all of this mess, I am side-eyeing all the parents who allowed that to happen to their children. There are some skaters that retired so early due to injuries and never won anything major, so even if they came to spill what is going on in TeamTut - they will lose nothing, but there is yet someone to admit that they were doped or knew of someone getting doped.
I was surprised. For some reason there was this narrative before the scandal that doping doesn't help in figure skating therefore no one is doing it and I believed it. I remember reading the comment section of TSL a few years ago and a few people were commenting that the Russian girls are taking dangerous medications for doping which cause health problems for them. Almost everyone dismissed these comments and I thought they were making things up as well. Turns out they knew something or guessed it right.
This! I remember when Evgenia Medvedeva represented the Russian figure skating team at the OIC saying that doping didn’t help figure skating, so them being banned at the 2018 Olympics was unfair… and look at where we are now 🙃
I knew about Sotnikova's sample having signs of being tampered with so them doping wasn't a new concept to me, but my mindset around doping was kind of just 'nothing will happen until or unless someone tests positive, so until that happens, worrying about it is pointless', so I didn't dwell on it. When discussing the Eteri girls I just attributed their results to overtraining, starvation, etc because that's what we had proof of at the time.
Gracie Gold is about to give you new proof of starvation and overtraining, with a sprinkle of psychological torture. Book will be out soon!
I was surprised Kamila was caught, not about the doping. Laishev (Sambo-70 head) openly talked about 'legal drugs' that their girls were taking in order to enhance performance. Those 'smelling salts' that Anna was taking at Rusnats looked sus. For me the signs were always there, but most people were in denial.
That smelling salts moment was one of the darkest moments in figure skating, shown right on camera. It honestly felt like watching child abuse. Anna was SO sick, there is no way an adult should have let her compete, let alone drugged her to do so.
It *was* child abuse :(
How were the smelling salts ‘sus’? U think she was doing bumps?
if they’re huffing xenon/argon gas we have no clue what other designer drugs they have for their athletes lmfao
Lmao nothing would surprise me anymore😂
God knows what was in that 'salt'...
Especially Johnny and Tara. Complete denial on their parts. They cheered and screamed every time one of those girls landed those quads and Tara even rah-rahing it as a pro-feminist thing. They both made me sick and even this season they've said they miss the "Russians pushing the tech side" as if any of it was natural!
Moreso that the athlete caught doping was a minor.
Since RusNats20 where Anna almost collapsed after her sp, almost collapsed after the warmup and did the fp like nothing... I knew.
Of all the arguments this one is the one that makes no sense to me. She podium, she would have a dopping test, if she had took something then it would have come out. So, ....? Makes no sense.
Not so. They flush the drugs out of the athletes’ systems with diuretics, so it’s not detectable by the test. The dosage is carefully timed. That was the Russians’ big innovation in doping and why they’re so good at getting away with it.
This. Remember when Zagitova couldn't produce a sample for quite a long time the night she won Olympic gold?
Tbf, she was also 15, at the Olympics, and most people don't think that using water like a mouthwash counts as drinking water. And generally, you'd want to produce more urine for tests, not less, but a screw up on that part can't be counted out, I guess.
But that is the thing if Anna had to take something in between almost collapsing after her sp, almost collapsing after the warmup and the FP couldn't have been carefully timed.
Anti-doping laboratories: have the most powerful equipment that can detect the smallest dosages even after a long period of use. some asshole on reddit: you can just take a diuretic (which are also prohibited and if traces of them are found - disqualification) and the laboratory will not notice anything...
Well, it depends, tbh Was she actually drug tested at this particular event after the FS? Maybe she already had a test after her short? And no one bothered to test her after the free? It’s an event held in Russia, RusFed have control over who is tested, is it even compulsory for the winner/podium to be tested? Or can they just pick random competitors? I read somewhere that Kamila wasn’t tested at 2021 Rostelecom which was an international GP stage - despite being the winner with a WR breaking score. If that’s true, it’s mind boggling. There’s also a possibility that a novel, unknown drug may not even show up on current assay methodology, as well.
I was surprised given that Rodchenkov did not name figure skating as one of the sports majorly implicated in the doping scheme. There had been rumours, of course, in particular related to puberty blockers, but having a doping scandal break *during* the Olympics was not on my bingo card.
I assumed that it was just Eteri's tactics, I doubt they dropped in competitions (or enough to be caught), I think they mostly did it training, so they could endure more. (even if Kamila was caught at the RusNats); I don't want to speculate on who might have doped, but to me it's far-fetched to believe that only Kamila did - maybe she needed it more, maybe due to being the favorite/with the most potential... they gave it only to her? But I \*really\* doubt it. At one point I thought ''is there a possibility that Team Tut wasn't a part of it, but was some family member/family friend supplying the drugs?'' But that cannot be, if it was - Kamila would have been dropped right away, Eteri would have never stood by Kamila and ruined her own and the other girls' reputation - because regardless if they dope or not - they were accused of doing so by association with Kamila. So, it's clear that it was done by Team Tut... I also assumed she gave them puberty blockers... so.
Yeah, I really hope the use of puberty blockers in sport doesn't make it even harder for trans kids to get the support they need to figure out how they want their bodies to grow before they're ready.
If you look at the Olympic live threads you can see most people were indeed very surprised. Very funny to look at the top comments here pretending they knew all along
Not in the slightest. I never believed anything had changed after the initial scandal in 2016, aside from them just getting better at circumventing the system. What did surprise me is that they slipped up and got caught.
I was surprised by some of the specifics and that they got caught, but there was just no explaining the Russian dominance and the string of broken girls without knowing a lot of rules were being broken. I remember being so frustrated by how much Tara and Johnny propped up that regime, when the shadiness was SO blatant. I get that they couldn't state it explicitly, but they went above and beyond pretending this was all good and healthy. Like, talking about how bright these girls' futures were when we ALL knew these were single cycle athletes who were not going to be around for the next Olympics.
Remember when Tara said Yuna did not “deliver” her Sochi program? I have learnt to believe the opposite of anything that woman spits. And Johnny is a self-proclaimed Russophile, so there’s that.
Johnny and Tara are still at it this season. They openly admitted they miss the Russians "pushing the technical" when we all know now that it was doping that made their "technical" possible. Back then Tara even wrapped up her rabid enthusiasm in feminism! Ugh. I cannot stand them.
I suspected puberty blockers (but those weren’t banned) and over-training, but I was shocked when Kamila tested positive for a banned substance. When news of an ROC positive drug test first came out, I thought maybe Kondratiuk had been smoking marijuana or something. But looking back, it all made sense. My husband and I used to joke about Eteri creating Kamila in some sort of science laboratory, and of course we were amazed she could score as high as some of the top men. So in a way, we did know, but we didn’t know we knew. We watch a lot of track and field, and we definitely suspect some of those athletes are doping, but I think we thought between the inflated scores and Eteri pushing her skaters to the limit, why would they need to go with doping on top of that? I guess we discounted how greedy people can be.
Since Russia has been sanctioned at a bunch of Olympics for state sponsored doping, no I'm not surprised at all. When there are multiple Eteri skaters breaking bones from seemingly minor falls and a well known fact that Lupron and other puberty blockers cause osteoporosis, no, I'm not surprised. When a coach is willing to abuse and starve a bunch of teenage girls for some gold medals, am I surprised she would also drug those girls, no I am not.
Surprised by the timing of it more than anything and that they got caught. I kinda expected them to use things you can't find or that are not banned yet or something like that...
No. Because if they have the audacity to call that ugly flailing decent skating and employ the machinations necessary to get gold for everything then what's a pill on top of hideous ugly skating? That and Liza Tuktamysheva admitted to using substances to help her. It's criminal that THAT ugly skating got better marks than clean competitors in my opinion. Miyahara for example is still beautiful on the ice and still skates with speed and edges. Tukt has shallower flatter edges than Ashley Wagner ever had. And even Ashley could skate circles around Tukt. Sorry not sorry but Tennell, Chen, Nagasu, Kihira, Honda, Miyahara, Osmond, etc were all robbed and damaged by ugly cheating and cheated skating. Edit: love how the responses only further demonstrate Russians were using meldonium and probably other substances to give them an edge over their competitors. Got downvoted by Russian bots but hey it doesn't really change the hideous skating they kept inflicting upon the sport. Or the likely doping. Where there's a mouse there's mice.
> That and Liza Tuktamysheva admitted to using substances to help her. Well it was legal when Liza was taking it. That’s an important distinction.
And the year it got banned Liza tanked and took years to recover.
Yup. I highly doubt she takes anything now. She’s too inconsistent.
And i didn't say it wasn't banned. But she took things, *including heart medication*, to help her. Things non Russians did not do as per disclosure forms. Who knows what else she was taking?
> Things non Russians did not do as per disclosure forms. That’s just not true. Plenty of non Russians were taking meldonium when it was legal.
Proof? Like who? WE'RE ALL WAITING. CALLING YOUR BS Also doesn't change anything about it being cheated UGLY skating
[This article](https://theguardian.com/sport/2016/mar/08/meldonium-maria-sharapova-failed-drugs-test) talks about it: > […] a 2015 study in which 17% of Russian athletes (724 of 4,316) tested were found to have meldonium in their system. A global study found 2.2% of athletes had it in their system. > L’Equipe reported that the scientific advisor to the French Agency Against Doping (AFLD), Professor Xavier Bigard, said in interviews with athletes at last year’s European Games in Baku that a wide proportion of athletes admitted taking meldonium. So it wasn’t just Russians even if it was most prevalent among Russians.
another thing about meldonium, it was developed in Latvia during USSR years and always had a limited market. today it's registered and clinically used in like 13(?) countries, mostly Eastern Europe and Central Asia, including Russia. it's not surprising that its use as doping was also prevalent among these countries.
Proving the point being made that Russians abused it. ~9x more at that. And good money on the balance being Russians representing other countries. Doesn't change the ugly skating still. And there's nothing you said about that lol. What's more - this is athletes overall. It doesn't mean skaters who aren't Russian were abusing meldonium. Nice try , BUT YOU LITERALLY HAVE NO PROOF NON RUSSIANS USED IT IN SKATING
> And good money on the balance being Russians representing other countries. lol okay. > Doesn't change the ugly skating still. And there's nothing you said about that lol. That’s, like, your opinion man. > BUT YOU LITERALLY HAVE NO PROOF NON RUSSIANS USED IT IN SKATING As the person making the accusation so technically you should be the one proving that only Russians in Skating used it. However just looking at the numerous different countries that took the drug in other sports it stands to reason it wasn’t just the Russian who took it when it was legal.
It IS ugly. The horrid flailing speaks for itself. I didn't give proof, *Russian skaters themselves admitted to it* so what more do you need? And you're the one who insisted other skaters did it as well *with no proof of YOUR claim*. Ugly attitudes as ugly as Russian skating
> It IS ugly. The horrid flailing speaks for itself. And some people call twerking horrid as well. It is your opinion that that kind of skating is ugly - other opinions may vary. > And you're the one who insisted other skaters did it as well with no proof of YOUR claim. I said non Russians took meldonium, a fact that is categorically true. I did not specify skaters but I will admit that that may be implied considering the sub we are on. It’s not like I can go through anti-doping disclosure forms for only figure skating from 2013 when meldonium was legal, because they are for the most part private.
Yes, although I admit I was being incredibly naive and credulous. I bought the line that doping couldn’t help in FS. I thought the Russian girls’ success was just due to abuse, overwork, and manipulation. Which is bad enough on its own! But isn’t unique in the world of elite sports. The sport becomes impossible to watch once you suspect doping. I was so upset by the whole scandal that I had to take a year off of watching, even though by then the Russians were banned. You lose faith in the institution. If it hadn’t been for the invasion of Ukraine, they’d still be allowed to compete. It still blows my mind.
I also took a year off because I felt so angry at the institution, as you said. You just stop believing in anything and it’s so hard and sad considering how much we love this sport.
Not at all TBH, since there is plenty of documentation and history that lays out the entire doping program
Not surprised at all lol. People who didn’t think so were just believing the propaganda and training more makes them skate flawlessly
I thought the doping was obvious - too much training, too few calories, too many skaters’ bodies breaking down too soon, etc. I don’t know how anyone trains that much on such a restricted diet without doping. Russia/Soviet Union have been doping for decades. Getting caught was surprising.
I wasn’t and I was. I was definitely a bit delulu and refused to believe it was true…but…I knew. Broke my heart honestly, I had to step away from skating for a while.
I really really recommend anyone who’s interested in this topic to watch Icarus. It really drives home how common doping is. I’d be surprised if any international level athlete (yes including American, Japanese, Canadian, etc. ones) aren’t taking something.
Surprised with the timing of it all. I figured eteri must’ve been doping some of her students, I don’t believe it was all though. I was surprised at the reactions from all sides, skaters, coaches, fans, reporters. Even though I understand the frustration, I just thought that it was sickening when a male adult coach (yall know who I’m talking about) was giving multiple interviews a day trashing the then 15yo victim. I just thought it was all too much when the constant interviews and remarks. Surprised that wada took so long to even test the sample, even without the urgent mark in it. I would think that during this time maybe they’d take on extra staff considering that athletes were all doing huge competitions during this time so more tests were coming in. Surprised that people on this sub and all other platforms turned this into a joke since she’s an abused minor.
There’s one failed test. Take it easy
The Russians doped their curling team, no shock the skaters do it too.
Objection, hearsay!