BEIJING — The news here Friday in the bubble — er, closed loop — was all about how International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach came down hard, and appropriately, on the 15-year-old Russian skater Kamila Valieva’s “entourage.”
“We are following the rule of law and we are feeling at the same time with a minor, with a 15-year-old girl who obviously has a drug in her body that should not be in her body and the ones who have administered these drugs in her body — these are the ones who are guilty,” Bach said, referring to Valieva’s Dec. 25 positive test for trimetazidine.
A few moments later, Bach turned to a World Anti-Doping inquiry into the people around Valieva. She crumbled on the ice Thursday night, sliding from first to fourth and breaking into tears, only to be met by her coach, Eteri Tutberidze, asking why she gave up, a moment that Bach called chilling and disturbing: “I hope that this inquiry will bring clarity so that the full truth is coming to light that the people who are responsible for this, that they will be held responsible for this — that they will be held responsible for this in the right way and when I say the right way, I say in the strongest possible way.”
IOC president Thomsa Bach at Friday’s news conference // Getty images
All this is of course a lot to unpack. If you were in the Valieva entourage, just this suggestion — legal counsel. There’s a lot of lawyering ahead.
In his lengthy meeting with the press, Bach also said the issue of a minimum-age rule for the Games would be studied — though this seems unlikely because, one, the IOC, always seeking relevance, is after a youth demographic and, two, when the organization just months ago celebrated the gold and silver medalists in women’s street skateboarding at the Tokyo Games, and both are 13-year-olds, one from Japan, the other from Brazil, it suddenly seems a disconnect to go after 15-year-old Russian skaters, ya know?
But this — this is not — the only news Friday.
There was the release early Friday morning Beijing time of a 41-page Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling that filled in far more detail behind the ruling Monday that said Valieva, just 15, would suffer “irreparable harm” if she were not allowed to skate on Thursday — citing due process and ‘fundamental” fairness.
In the weeks to come, another fight in this case will be over what the panel on Friday termed the “instigating fact” — the “untenable delay” by the Stockholm laboratory “caused by reasons not attributable” to Valieva, “the anchor of which is that [she] is a Protected Person,” not yet 16, meaning she has different standards to meet for what she must prove, or not, and what punishment she might ultimately get, or not.
That’s also not the only news.
There was this nugget in Friday’s CAS ruling, which surely will pass unnoticed by most in the western and U.S. press or even with approval by some:
The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, along with the Canadian Olympic Committee, asked for the opportunity to be “silent observers” in the case. CAS said no. Duh. Talk about trying to be political bullies. Imagine if the situation were reversed — if a high-profile American 15-year-old girl were in the dock, and the Russian Olympic Committee said, we want to just sit in, Olympic friends from far away, you know, just be here. What would the U.S. press say about that? They’d go berserk, that’s what.
Which brings us to:
To better understand the hypocrisy of the American approach to the Valieva matter, and how it reverberates, we need to look beyond the hothouse of the bubble.
U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who in 2002 ran the Salt Lake Games, was back in the Utah capital a few days ago and said that the Winter Games would be coming back there “someday” — “2030, 2034, 2038, that’s something which the international politics will determine.”
Putting aside the impact on LA28, which arguably remains the key factor in the next Salt Lake Games timetable:
The senator and I have known each other since 1999. Decoding what he has to say is not difficult. Look at it from the IOC’s point of view. The NBC rights deal expires in 2032; that means the IOC would want considerable new money from an American source in 2034, not sooner, which weighs in favor of 2034 or later. Meanwhile, the Americans keep being a huge pain in the overall Olympic backside — read, “international politics.” The Biden Administration — with Romney’s urging BTW — came up with the “diplomatic boycott” of 2022, which accomplished nothing except to irritate the vast majority of Olympic stakeholders. Now, with Valieva, the USOPC and USADA keep being a bigger pain. And their ill-advised exhortation of the U.S. press?
Let’s play the common sense game, shall we? Which seems more likely, sooner or later? What is “someday”? Maybe this can be the SLC bid committee’s theme song — Diana Ross & The Supremes singing, “Someday We’ll Be Together”!
Let’s keep in mind that a Salt Lake Olympics would be worth millions if not billions of dollars in direct and indirect benefits.
As for that hypocrisy when it comes to the U.S. view of doping — and keep in mind the howling and demonizing of a 15-year-old Russian girl whose A sample has tested positive for a heart medication: She has not been convicted of anything. She is due a hearing on the merits. True, when this all plays out, she may get a two-year ban. But because she is 15, the rules say she may yet, given the circumstances, ultimately be entitled to nothing more than a reprimand or warning. In which case she will be a gold medalist in the team event.
Tyler Skaggs pitching May 25, 2019, against the Texas Rangers // Getty Images
A federal jury in Texas on Friday found former Los Angeles Angels communications director Eric Kay guilty on two felony counts in connection with the July 1, 2019, death of Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs, who died after ingesting oxycodone, fentanyl and alcohol.
Kay faces a minimum of 20 years in prison. He won’t be sentenced until at least June 28.
One of the key witnesses in the case was Matt Harvey, a one-time Angels — and New York Mets star — pitcher. He testified under prosecutorial immunity, he said, acknowledging that he was a cocaine user before and during his season with the Angels in 2019. As ESPN reported, he said he tried oxycodone provided by Skaggs and also provided drugs to Skaggs.
Of course, testimony in a federal court is under oath. The federal authorities really don’t like it when you don’t tell the truth. So when Matt Harvey said this, too, you can believe it: he said oxycodone use was common in the Major Leagues.
A few months after Skaggs was found dead, MLB and its players’ union announced that players would start to be tested for opioids and cocaine — they had not been until then — and that, unlike the World Anti-Doping Code approach, which levies a suspension (a flat three months for cocaine for instance per the 2021 rules) a positive test would result in a referral to treatment.
You see the discrepancy?
The Kay case, unlike the Valieva matter, generated remarkably few headlines — even though the Super Bowl is over and spring training camps are locked out. Deadspin posted a piece Wednesday entitled: “The trial of the man accused of causing Tyler Skaggs’ death is flying under the radar”
Again, you understand the discrepancy?
It’s particularly acute when we come to the matter of “irreparable harm.”
Tyler Skaggs is dead.