Despite the doping scandal, Valieva is the best Russian athlete

figure skater Kamila Valieva He was chosen by the Russians as the best athlete in the country in 2022.

Valieva, despite the still unclear doping case and in the midst of the unfinished sports law scandal, came out on top in the poll conducted by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center.

According to the data, 16-year-old Valieva won 7 percent of the participants, and she won with the Russian national team at the Beijing Winter Olympics last February, then came fourth individually, after it was revealed between the two competitions: Banned. A substance was found in his doping sample in December 2021. The case raised a storm, and the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) finally allowed him to compete in Beijing as an individual. However, the waves of the doping scandal haven’t subsided since then, and there’s still no official final result for the team competition, according to MTI.

According to the results of the Russian public opinion poll, the three-time Olympic champion cross-country skier took second place behind Valieva. Alexander Polsonov He finished third in the North American professional hockey league, the NHL Alexander OvechkinThe former received five and the latter four percent of the vote. Anna Shcherbakova, the women’s single skating gold medalist, earned 2% each.