Italy is in favour of raising the
minimum age of athletes taking part in major events, Italian Ice
Sport Federation President Andrea Gios said Friday in the wake
of the case of Kamila Valieva, the 15-year-old Russian figure
skater at the centre of a doping row at the Beijing 2022 Winter
Olympics.
He said the next congress of the International Skating Union
will discuss raising the minimum age for major events to 17 as a
stepping stone to taking it up to 18.
"Italy supports this as necessary, along with many other
countries," Gios said, adding that the reform could be speeded
up in view of the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.
"It's not in the interest of sport to have 15-year-old champions
who vanish after a year.
"Champions must last and go down in history like Katarina Witt,
Carolina Kostner.
"This girl (Valieva) has been massacred. She wasn't able to
skate, the same girl who was doing extraordinary things," he
added after the Russian failed to make the podium on Thursday,
having fallen twice in her final routine.
"How is it possible that a doping test done in December wasn't
made public until the Olympics.
"The Russians would have sent someone else and all this would
not have happened (if the result had been announced before).
"We have thrown a 15-year-old girl into the lions' pit for a a
test done two months ago".
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
