Doping-Valieva's cocktail of medicines raises concerns around supplement dangers

MANCHESTER, England : The revelation that banned teenage Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva had been plied with 56 medications and dietary aids has shone a light on the murky world of legal supplements, where a contaminated powder or poorly-worded label could spell disaster for an elite athlete.

Canada's double world figure skating champion Meagan Duhamel never trusted antibiotics during her competitive career and was even hyper-wary of vitamins and minerals for fear of triggering a positive doping result.

    "I didn't take antibiotics once in my elite career and I questioned any vitamins," she told Reuters.

"No athlete is taking over 50 supplements as a teenager on their own or without ill intent. The athletes I know questioned everything and took maybe Advil (ibuprofen) and a few vitamins and that's it."

    Duhamel won two world titles with pairs partner Eric Radford plus an Olympic team gold and like many athletes was alarmed by the laundry list of supplements Valieva's team reported the teen was taking between the ages of 13 and 15. 

    "When we had to fill out a list of whatever we took within a certain number of days, mine was always the same: iron, magnesium and calcium," Duhamel said.

"The lists that came from Chinese and Russian skaters sometimes needed the front and back of the paper."

    In January, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) found Valieva guilty of committing an anti-doping violation after Trimetazidine (TMZ) was found in a sample in December 2021.

She was handed a four-year ban and her results at the 2022 Beijing Olympics were nullified.

    Valieva blamed her positive test on a strawberry dessert prepared by her grandfather on a chopping board he used to crush his medication pills.

CAS's detailed