Sawt Falasteen - Anti-doping boss 'uncomfortable' with Valieva's coach at Olympics

Valieva was banned for doping after the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics but her coach Eteri Tutberidze is back with a new Russian skater, Adeliia Petrosian, at the Milan-Cortina Games.

Witold Banka, the head of the global anti-doping watchdog WADA, said his organisation was powerless to stop Tutberidze, who also guided the women's individual Olympic gold medallist in 2014 and 2018, from being at the Games.

"It is not our decision the coach is here," Banka said at a news conference in Milan.

"The investigation found no evidence that this person engaged in this doping so there is no legal basis to exclude her.

"Of course, if you are asking me personally about my feelings, I don't feel comfortable with her presence here in the Olympic Games."

Valieva, then aged 15, tested positive for the banned heart medication trimetazidine following the Russian championships in December 2021.

The medicine, commonly known as TMZ, is used to treat angina but is banned by WADA as a performance-enhancing drug.

The case only came to light in February 2022 during the Beijing Games -- a day after Russia's victory in the team event, in which Valieva became the first female skater to land a quadruple jump in Olympic competition.

Valieva told an arbitration panel she tested positive because of "contamination" from her grandfather's heart medicine.

She claimed it could have come from a chopping board that he had used to prepare his drugs that she also used to make a strawberry dessert.

Now 19, she returned to competition last month, at the end of her four-year ban.

She was not selected for the Milan-Cortina Olympics but Petrosian, 18, is considered among the favourites for gold.

M.AlAhmad--SF-PST