Kamila Valieva's doping test revealed the presence of three substances to improve the heart function, the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) said. According to The New York Times, these drugs can be aimed at increasing endurance, if used in combination.
According to USADA's chief Travis Tygart, Kamila Valieva's doping test revealed the presence of trimetazidine, L-carnitine and hypoxen. Of these three drugs, it is only trimetazidine that is included in the list of drugs prohibited for athletes.
"It's a trifecta of substances — two of which are allowed, and one that is not allowed. The benefits of such a combination "seem to be aimed at increasing endurance, reducing fatigue and promoting greater efficiency in using oxygen," Travis Tygart said.
Russian sports doctor Valentin Belyaevsky criticized Tygart's assumption. According to Belyaevsky, the combination of trimetazidine with other drugs does not make sense.
"The use of hypoxen and L-carnitine is common in sports medicine. These are one of the most popular substances, one may say. Hypoxen is hardly ever used nowadays, this is an old Soviet drug, it is useless," Valentin Belyaevsky said.
L-carnitine is a popular supplement for athletes that does not affect their performance, he added.
"You can drink liters of it, nothing will happen,” the specialist noted. Hypoxen is an outdated drug from the 1990s, he said.
Clinical pharmacologist and pathologist Alexander Ediger believes that there are three ways, in which trimetazidine could find itself in Kamila Valieva's body.
In the latter case, the doctor believes, an accidental situation could occur when the prohibited drug was part (impurity) of a food product or a medicine that the suspect used.
Ediger doubts that Kamila Valieva could have taken her grandfather's pills. It is not likely that the 15-year-old figure skater could eat her food from the same plate that her grandfather used either.
Denis Oswald, the head of the Disciplinary Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), earlier said that trimetazidine found itself in the body of the 15-year-old Russian figure skater through a food product that her grandfather had eaten.
However, the organization questioned this version, as Oswald was not present at the meeting of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and was thus forced to resort to the information that he learned from mass media.
Kamila Valieva earlier said that she was afraid to be alone, when she had to come across a difficult situation in her life. In the end, however, she found a lot of support. Valieva expressed her gratitude to coaches, colleagues, in particular, Russian figure skater Mark Kondratyuk, as well as to her fans.
"When I open Instagram, I see so many good wishes and so much faith. I even saw billboards in Moscow "Kamila, we are with you!”. It is very nice. And in such a difficult time, this support is very important to me," Kamila Valieva said.