"What's the conspiracy here?" Russian Olympic champion destroys propaganda in the case of figure skater Valieva

Olympic champion Ruslan Zakharov has pushed back against Kremlin propaganda narratives about an alleged conspiracy against figure skater Kamila Valieva, who was disqualified for doping. The winner of the 2018 PyeongChang Games in short-track speed skating expressed confidence that the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne (CAS) had made a fair decision.

Zakharov said this in an interview with Sports.ru. According to the skater, Valieva is fully responsible for the fact that a banned substance was found in her body, and in addition, the Russian side failed to build an effective defense of its 17-year-old athlete.

"If a banned drug is found in your sample, what's the conspiracy? Athletes do not have the presumption of innocence. On the contrary, in the case of something, you have to prove that you are not guilty. And there have been many cases when athletes whose samples were found to contain banned drugs were acquitted. But you need a properly constructed defense. Sometimes the versions sound like fantasy, but they still work. That is, the court there is normal. I believe in it. There were many cases when decisions were made in favor of Russian athletes," Zakharov said.

CAS found Valieva guilty of violating anti-doping rules. Later it became known that in court, the Russian Federation was unable to prove even the existence of Kamila's grandfather, who allegedly made her a cake containing a banned substance. At the time of the Beijing Olympics, 60 different substances were found in the skater's blood, who was 15 years old at the time.

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