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Russian Skater’s Doping Defense: I Must Have Swallowed Grandad’s Heart Meds by Mistake

A lawyer for Kamila Valieva, the 15-year-old Russian figure skater, says she must have inadvertently taken the banned drug trimetazidine.

The young Russian skater at the center of a doping row at the Beijing Winter Olympics after failing a drugs test says she must have accidentally swallowed angina medication taken by her grandfather. The novel defense emerged as 15-year-old Kamila Valieva prepared to skate in today’s individual short program. “Her argument was this contamination... happened with a product her grandfather was taking,” IOC member Dennis Oswald, who heads the IOC disciplinary commission, told reporters in Beijing.

USA Today said the main thrust of Valieva’s defense had previously been reported by The Dossier Center, a website run by the exiled Russian businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky. It said Valieva’s lawyer, Anna Kozmenko, told a Russian Anti-Doping Agency hearing last week that Valieva's grandfather takes the drug trimetazidine for heart issues and there were various ways it could have got into her body: "For example, (her) grandfather drank something from a glass, saliva got in (and) this glass was somehow later used by the athlete." Valieva is the clear favorite for individual gold in Beijing, although the IOC says no medals will be handed out until her case has been fully heard.