Feb 17, 2022What is Trimetazidine?
Russian teenage figure skater Kamila Valieva failed a drug test taken in December before the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, the International Testing Agency (ITA) confirmed to CNN last Friday.
The failed test only came to light during the Winter Olympics, and it remains unclear if the drug test controversy will see the medal revoked.Since 2014, it has been on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of prohibited substances and is categorized as a “hormone and metabolic modulator.” This is illegal for athletes to use both in and out of competition as it can increase blood flow efficiency and improve endurance.
TMZ is usually taken once or twice a day and can easily be detected in drug tests. It is not recommended for children 18 years or younger.
The most famous case of trimetazidine in sports doping involved Chinese swimmer Sun Yang.
The three-time Olympic champion served a three-month ban in 2014 in a ruling that was initially not published by China’s anti-doping agency. WADA did not use its right to challenge that Chinese judgment with an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Because it was Sun’s first doping offense, he was punished more severely for his second, and more high-profile, offense of refusing to cooperate with a sample collections team at his home in China.
Russian bobsledder Nadezhda Sergeeva tested positive for trimetazidine at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics. She was disqualified from the two-woman bob event and served an eight-month ban.
To read the full story from USA Today about the Russian figure skater, click here.
