My buddy said my question is irrelevant as you take drugs so you can train better which down the road helps you perform better. I see his point but I think of figure skating as being more technical.
You seem to really want to excuse a blatant cheater. Strange from a site that lets just about everything go in the name of clean sports.
Rojo seems to excuse certain athletes that get caught cheating like this girl and Shelby. Yet most others are ripped to shreds by him. Odd
this is a European only drug so I am honestly not familiar with it at all and after a quick search it also contains a novel mechanism. i doubt it would have a serious impact on performance since its mechanism is to offset reduced blood flow to the heart. in a healthy individual you would likely already have optimization here. However, it does seem pretty clear that she was taking this with the intent of improving performance as its not a first line agent for angina (its only approved indication) and not recommended for anyone under 18 (shes 15). no doctor shouldve prescribed this in good faith.
The gist of the linked thread is that the drug would enable more repetitions of the program in training. This would seem to be a clear advantage in a build up to a major competition in a skill oriented sport.
It also seems unlikely that the a 15 year old girl is doing this on her own implying that at least all skaters under that coach are more than a little suspect.
It's even weirder that all three meds detected in her system are allegedly her grandfather's. Supposing that's so, how and why did she ingest her grandfather's meds??
I watched her short program- she missed a jump was flawless for the rest and cried when it was over.
IMHO:
She was given the drug by an adult she trusted and, at 15, had no clue that she was doing anything wrong.
She was TOLD to make up the story about grampa's heart pills.
She's a kid. I can't imagine a parent wanting the negative press and outright hate heaped on her to be given to their child.
Bottom line- she's a very talented 15 year old child.
Which is why:
1. Russian athletes, in all sports, should have been banned from international competition entirely. At a minimum, all of the skaters under this particular coach should have been precluded from competing. If one on a team is on a doping regimen then they all are. This follows like night following day.
2. "Ladies" figure skating is a garbage sport and serious consideration should be given to abolishing it altogether. Young women are abused and exploited for the benefit of adults. Much as with ladies gymnastics. At a minimum, there should be a minimum age limit, such as 18.
My girlfriend in college played flute. You can practice flute for about 4 hours a day max. Beyond that, you get face fatigue and can barely play anything when that sets in. If you try to push through it, you can get chronic face fatigue problems and lose your ability to play. But the flute players who were able to win auditions and get jobs in major symphony orchestras were almost always the ones who were able to get an extra few hours of practice in a day. No one really understood why certain flute players were complete outliers on endurance. But it was often an outcome determining aspect for the ability to compete at orchestra auditions where flute players have to nail the most difficult orchestral excerpts under extreme pressure.
Skating is very similar in that the athletes are perfecting fine motor skills that require hours of repetition to perfect the muscle memory needed to hit their jumps ten times out of ten. If you are able to be on the ice longer than the other skaters, you will be able to better train those fine motor skills and be ready to hit harder jumps with better accuracy than the skaters who are not able to practice as long. So, it is potentially an advantage that stays with you into competition long after the drug has passed through your system.
She was also taking L-carnitine and Hypoxen. Sound familiar?
I am sure all the other girls training with the coach are taking similar substances.
The Russians have been involved with state-sponsored doping for decades. Whether the drugs actually help is irrelevant. Though you have to wonder; their female athletes are doing jumps that only men have five previously, and no women from other countries can do them. I wonder why?
Let's say someone did dope her or even that she knowingly doped. What I want to know is would the med be helping her now (assuming she's off). She tested positive on December 25.
My buddy said my question is irrelevant as you take drugs so you can train better which down the road helps you perform better. I see his point but I think of figure skating as being more technical.
Technique needs to be practiced over and over. Increased endurance makes that possible. You really don't see that?