The New York Times: Valieva's doping tests found three drugs for the treatment of heart

In the body of figure skater Kamila Valieva, who was at the center of a doping scandal at the Beijing Olympics, during doping tests, in addition to trimetazidine, two more drugs were found that are usually used to treat heart disease. It is reported by The New York Times.

The sample was provided by Valieva before the Beijing Games and studied in a laboratory in Stockholm. If trimetazidine is banned as a drug that can increase endurance and give a high-level skater a competitive advantage, then the other two drugs found - hypoxen and L-carnitine - are not banned. However, the presence of all three drugs in the body of a young athlete is extremely unusual, experts say. According to Travis Tygart, executive director of the US Anti-Doping Agency, this combination of drugs "appears to be aimed at increasing endurance, reducing fatigue and increasing oxygen efficiency."

L-carnitine, a substance that converts fat into energy, has featured in many doping scandals in the past. In 2019, Alberto Salazar, the trainer of the world's best stayers, was suspended for four years - one of the reasons was that in an attempt to improve the performance of the wards, he forced them to take intravenous infusions of L-carnitine. L-carnitine is now legal to take orally, says Tygart, but it is banned when given in large amounts by infusion or intravenous infusion because it can improve outcomes in that form. It is not yet known how Valieva took the supplement.

On Tuesday, an IOC executive board member told reporters that Valieva's positive result could be due to her grandfather taking trimetazidine. In addition, members of the Russian anti-doping organization presented as evidence at a Sunday hearing in Beijing a statement by Valieva's mother, who said that her daughter took hypoxen due to cardiac abnormalities.