BEIJING (Reuters) – Rachael Denhollander, the primary lady to publicly accuse former USA Gymnastics physician Larry Nassar of sexual abuse, instructed Reuters that Russian skating prodigy Kamila Valieva’s failed drug take a look at is a reminder of how susceptible young athletes stay.
The 15-year-old Valieva helped Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) to a crew gold in Beijing after touchdown the primary quadruple leap in Games competitors on Monday.
But she was thrust into controversy after the International Testing Agency (ITA) mentioned she had examined constructive for banned coronary heart drug Trimetazidine in a pattern collected on Dec. 25. She is one of the youngest Olympians ever to check constructive.
“A baby doesn’t make a option to take these sorts of medicines until they’re given to her by any individual who’s in authority,” Denhollander instructed Reuters.
“What we’re actually seeing is the unimaginable harm that has come but once more to a toddler who has been beneath the management of adults who worth her, not for who she is however for what she will produce for them.”
A former aggressive gymnast who works as an legal professional and advocate for victims of abuse, Denhollander went public along with her allegations in opposition to Nassar in 2016, prompting greater than 350 different girls to come back ahead and a reckoning inside one of essentially the most highly effective nationwide governing our bodies in sport.
She sees Valieva’s case as a reminder that whereas there may be higher consciousness of the abuse young athletes can face in sport, little has been carried out to forestall it.
“It’s not like we have not recognized that we’re elevating our children within the atmosphere the place they’re valued for what they might produce,” she mentioned.
“The downside shouldn’t be elevating consciousness, the issue is caring sufficient to do one thing about it. And proper now, these organisations are nonetheless staffed and run by authority figures who don’t care sufficient to do one thing about it.”
Valieva is because of compete once more on Tuesday within the girls’s particular person occasion, however The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) is anticipated to dominated on her case earlier than the occasion which may finish her Olympics.
Valieva’s constructive take a look at has rocked the Beijing Games, and prompted outcry from some of the most important names in Olympic sport.
Denhollander stopped brief of calling for a boycott of the Olympics however mentioned her instance exhibits a necessity for higher oversight.
“What we’re lacking is the general public strain and the outcry to say we’ll now not tolerate this,” she mentioned. “We will now not take part in Olympic Games, the place nations are allowed to do that to their youngsters.”
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in Beijing; Editing by Michael Perry)
