Russian skater listed two legal substances on anti-doping form

Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva included two legal substances, L-carnitine and hypoxen, on a doping control form, The Washington Post reported.

Valieva declared both substances and a multivitamin called supradyn in a doping control form, according to a filing by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) posted online on the Dossier Center, a website that former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky runs, the Post reported.

One person with direct knowledge of the case confirmed the document’s authenticity to the newspaper.

Valieva also claimed that her grandfather used the banned drug trimetazidine, explaining that she may have been exposed to it, according to the document.

Valieva tested positive for the banned substance. The Russian figure skater spent a significant amount of time with her grandfather, Valieva’s mother testified, according to the Post.

But WADA appeared to reject the claim that the drug was used by her grandfather at all, saying in the filing that “there is inadequate evidence that her grandfather was even using trimetazidine” and that she was “well short of establishing that her grandfather’s medication was the source of the trimetazidine,” according to the document, the Post noted.

“[I]t is not sufficient for an athlete to simply identify a potential source,” WADA said, the newspaper reported.

A spokesperson for WADA told The Hill it could not comment on the matter, citing the pending case.

The news is the latest development tied to controversy surrounding the Russian figure skater who tested positive for trimetazidine, and has since been allowed to continue competing. 

The decision to allow Valieva to compete has sparked backlash among critics who say that there is a double standard between the Russian athlete’s case and American runner Sha’Carri Richardson’s.

Richardson tested positive for marijuana and was unable to compete in the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.

“Can we get a solid answer on the difference of her situation and mines?” Richardson tweeted. “My mother died and I can’t run and was also favored to place top 3. The only difference I see is I’m a black young lady.”