A History Of Doping In Figure Skating

Photo courtesy Toronto Public Library, from Toronto Star Photographic Archive. Reproduced for educational purposes under license permission.

Back in the nineteenth century, there was always a bottle of brandy on hand to revive skaters that fell through the ice. In the days when figure skating competitions were held outdoors in subzero temperatures, it wasn't unheard of for skaters to warm themselves up with a swig of something strong¹ after doing their Lutzes and loop's. Though an adult beverage is a far cry from a doping violation, these kinds of stories serve as a reminder as to what the sport was like in the days before skaters were subjected to testing of any sort.

When talking about doping throughout figure skating's history, one of the first things to consider are the policies of early touring ice revues like the Ice Capades and Ice Follies. Skaters on these tours were subjected to weekly weigh-in's. If they weighed "too much", they were subject to fines or - in the case of "repeat offenders" - dismissal. An article from "The Bangor Daily News" reported that on tour with the Ice Capades, "Food and weight control dominated talk among the skaters, both male and female, especially when it got close to the weekly weigh-in time. Each skater was assigned a designated weight - called a 'set'. Skaters who didn't make [their designated] weight were docked money out of their paychecks and sometimes threatened with being sent home. Some skaters wouldn't eat for three days before the weigh-in. Others would pile on clothing to tip the scales. Many took laxatives to lose weight. Many thought the more alcohol they drank, the less weight they'd gain."² The lengths many professional skaters resorted to in order to keep their paycheques and jobs are largely undocumented. They weren't subject to drug tests.

Photo courtesy Ingrid Hunnewell

Amateur figure skaters were first subjected to drug testing at the 1968 Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble, France³. The International Skating Union issued one of its first Communications about doping in the autumn of 1972, announcing that going forward, testing would be conducted at all ISU Championships. The first tests were conducted at the 1973 European Championships in Cologne, West Germany⁴ and formal rules for doping controls were accepted at that year's ISU Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark⁵.

In the seventies and early eighties, doping control was only mandatory at the Winter Olympic Games, World Championships, European Championships and World Junior Championships. It could be conducted optionally at other international events, such as Skate Canada or the NHK Trophy, but the organizers were required to publicize that fact prior to the competition if they decided to do so.⁷ As doping tests at a national level were inconsistent at that point, this would have allowed skaters who were being doped or routinely taking prescription diet pills to fly under the radar. They simply had to stop well before the big international events each season so they wouldn't get caught.

Photo courtesy Toronto Public Library, from Toronto Star Photographic Archive. Reproduced for educational purposes under license permission.

From the get-go, there were concerns that athletes were finding ways to outsmart doping controls. In 1980, journalist Norman Webster suggested that the reason not a single athlete failed doping controls at the Summer Olympic Games wasn't because "they all owe their success to nothing but clean living and mother's home cooking... What it does mean, according to the International Olympic Committee's medical commission, is that the athletes know when to stop... before a competition."⁸

In 1980, the ISU's doping penalties were rather straight-forward. For the first violation, skaters would be disqualified from the competition and suspended for fifteen months. If there was a second violation, no matter what the substance, they would be banned for life. These penalties remained in place until 1990, when a rule change put forth by the East German federation suggesting specific penalties for specific drugs was approved.⁹

One of the first instances of a disqualification due to doping controls actually occurred in the Soviet Union. In January of 1982, Kira Ivanova won the women's figure skating competition at the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR in Krasnoyarsk but was stripped of her title because she failed to show up at the doping test afterwards because she'd been drinking. As a result, she was removed from the national team for a time.¹⁰

That December at the World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Sarajevo the bronze-medal winning French ice dance team of Christine Chiniard and Martial Mette were later disqualified. Chiniard was taking a weight loss drug that was on the banned list.¹¹  An American duo, Christina and Keith Yatsuhashi, were eventually elevated to the bronze medal position.¹² 

Photo courtesy Los Angeles Public Library

In 1987, Dr. Thomas Kosten penned an article noting, "Although no sport is immune from 'doping', figure skating has had very little history of drug use. This reflects well on our sport and competitors, yet we need to be vigilant and concerned about this issue. Athletes are highly motivated to succeed, and this motivation can make them more than willing to experiment with a variety of drugs that they believe will improve their performance." Dr. Kosten warned skaters of the dangers of stimulants, specifically cocaine and amphetamines, and anabolic steroids.¹³

Vigilance about doping tests caused many skaters to forego necessary medical treatment. At the 1984 Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo, Canadian pairs skater Paul Martini suffered from asthma but elected not to use the Ventilin puffer he'd been prescribed on the advice of Team Canada's Doctor¹⁴ . Four years later at the Winter Olympic Games, the flu raged through Calgary¹⁵. The Olympic Village was not immune. American skater Caryn Kadavy was forced to withdraw due to illness¹⁶; Canada's Liz Manley suffered through¹⁷ and won a silver medal. Lenka Knapová and René Novotný cracked the top ten in the pairs short program at the Games. Afterwards, Novotný had a terrible migraine headache. The doctor of Czechoslovakian ski jump team prescribed him the drug Alnagon, which contained codeine, caffeine and phenobarbital. In an interview with the Czech newspaper "Aha!", he recalled, "I don't even want to remember what happened next. Before the competition, I was in the locker room putting on my skates when two 'gorillas' came and led me out of the hall. Then Lenka and I were locked up in the Olympic Village and interrogated until morning. The doctor denied everything and I had to take it. They pulled us from the competition."¹⁸ The ISU made its doping controls more strict the following season, incorporating random tests at different phases of the competitions at the European Championships in Birmingham, England.¹⁹ Ironically, when the World Championships were held in Birmingham in 1995, Novotný won the Czech Republic's first gold medal in pairs skating at the World Championships with his wife Radka Kovaříková.

On November 21, 1989, Heiko Fischer dropped dead during a friendly squash game. A five-time West German Champion and veteran of two Olympics, Fischer was only twenty-nine years of age.²⁰ Horst Klehr, a pharmacist who was responsible for creating one of the first lists of banned substances specific to sport, referenced the German skater in a 2009 speech about athletes involved in doping. He said, "Many fatalities could still be alive today if the officials in the West had not closed their eyes."²¹

A failed doping test at the 1991 European Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria almost cost World Champions Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko the title.²² Klimova's sample suggested steroid use, but a second test of the sample was done at a German laboratory and she was cleared. After the event, ISU Secretary Beat Häsler told reporters, "The result of the B analysis was no confirmation of the A analysis... There was no identity of the positive results of the A analysis through the B analysis... They made a huge mistake in Bulgaria. There was simply no comparison between the two measurements."²³ CFSA President David Dore expressed confusion over the ISU's ruling about Klimova's sample, citing the fact that there had "been problems between the ISU and CFSA over the reporting of doping tests at the 1990 World Championships in Halifax."²⁴ 

Romy Kermer and Rolf Oesterreich

In 1992, former residents of East Germany (the German Democratic Republic) were first allowed to view their Stasi records.²⁵ Within two years of the files being accessible, horrific doping stories started to trickle out. Swimmers were given round after round of testosterone injections; weight-lifters were given such high doses of steroids that they had to have operations to remove fatty tissue from their chests after they retired.²⁶ Through consultation of Stasi records, German radio station Deutschlandfunk reported that in 1976, pairs skater "Rolf Oesterreich... tested positive for anabolic steroids at the GDR exit control and only arrived when the doping abuse was no longer detectable."²⁷ Rolf Oesterreich and his partner Romy Kermer won the silver medal in the pairs event at the 1976 Games in Innsbruck.

After the fall of The Berlin Wall, several figure skaters, including Ingo Steuer²⁸, Karin Miegel, Susanne Schnierda and Katrin Kanitz, came forward in media interviews claiming they were administered  'the blue pill' - Oral-Turinabol - as part of East Germany's Staatsplanthema 14.25 state-organized forced doping program.²⁹  In her scholarly dissertation on the East German Sports System, Barbara Carol Cole argued, "We do not now know, nor probably ever will know, the extent of the drug usage of the GDR's competitors, because, there too, no records exist. [Dr. Werner] Franke adheres, in the meantime, to the conviction that 'universal' doping was applied in all realms by 1980. This does not mean, however, that there were not numerous cases and disciplines or even institutes where doping played no factor at all, or that only selective usage at certain levels was the rule."³⁰

Although many files related to Staatsplanthema 14.25 were destroyed by the time of German unification³¹ , documented proof of doping in East Germany emerged in 1994.³² We will likely never know the true extent to which doping affected East German athletes. The support group Doping-Opfer-Hilfe e.V. - Forum für selbstbestimmten Sport has reported that figure skaters that were doped under Staatsplanthema 14.25 had surgeries to remove tumours, cysts and ovaries and suffered from a range of long-term consequences such as depression, acute pain and eating disorders.³⁴

A document about the Staatsplanthema 14.25 doping program. Photo courtesy Stasi Unterlagen Archiv, German Federal Archive.

In 1996, the International Amateur Athletic Federation presented the results of a study on a masking agent called Bromantane (Ladasten) that several Russian athletes were found to be using at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. This report noted that one Russian figure skater tested positive for Bromantane in March of that year.³⁵ While this skater was not named, if we assume this test was taken at the World Championships in Edmonton, Alberta - it could only have been one of eight women.³⁶ Every single one of those women either won an Olympic medal or World title at some point in their career. In 1997, the Anti-Doping Agency added Bromantane to its banned list, as both a masking agent and stimulant.³⁷

At the 1998 European Championships in Milan, French Champion Thierry Cerez tested positive for the anabolic steroid Nandrolone. French lecturer Dr. Jean-Pierre de Mondenard considered it a particularly curious case. He explained, "When an athlete knowingly consumes Nandrolone or Norandrostenedione, its precursor, these two substances do not appear directly in the urine but are transformed in certain organs, including the liver, into two distinct metabolites: norandrosterone (NA) and noretiocholanone (NE) which can be detected in urine. Similarly, when eating a steak and fries, we do not find meat and potatoes in the urine, but only their waste. Thus, nandrolone is never present as such in the samples taken during a doping control. On the other hand, and according to the IOC rule, to confirm Nandrolone or Norandrosterone doping, the two metabolites must be present together in the urine."³⁹ Cerez's sample was sent to a laboratory in Rome, which found it contained only one of the two metabolites of Nandrolone. Because Noretiocholanone was absent, Cerez's name was cleared, but the ordeal put his skating career in limbo for six months.⁴⁰ 

Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze

In 2000, Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze were stripped of their gold medals at the European Championships in Vienna, Austria due to a failed doping test. Berezhnaya tested positive for pseudoephedrine.⁴¹ She was suffering from bronchitis at the time and was prescribed medication containing the banned substance by a doctor in New Jersey.⁴² As a result of the timing of the failed test, the Organizing Committee of the 2000 World Championships announced that Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze would not be competing. In the news release, they said "she had taken it inadvertently in medication for bronchitis and waived the right to the analysis of the B sample, thereby acknowledging the result and thus withdrawing from the Championships."⁴³ Not long after, it was announced that another team, Uzbekistan's Natalia Ponomareva and Evgeniy Sviridov, would also not be competing. Sviridov tested positive for a banned substance at the Four Continents Championships.⁴⁴ 

Kamila Valieva's positive test for Trimetazidine, which came to light at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, was and is big news⁴⁵, but it came after a decade and a half where allegations of doping in figure skating have significantly increased. Several Russian figure skaters who competed at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi were under investigation at one point as part of The McLaren Report, which was commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency. One sample from a male skater was referenced where the DNA didn't even match other samples previously provided at the Games!⁴⁶ A very incomplete listing of doping related cases in figure skating since 2006 reveals a consistent rise in the number of cases involving diuretics and masking agents.

Year	Country	Skater	Substance	Outcome
2006	Russia	Tatiana Navka	None (failure to report for testing)	ISU official allowed Navka to skip testing due to "treatment of a wound presenting potentially serious trauma and requiring specialized medical care." Her partner, Roman Kostomarov, took her place. Investigated by WADA as doctor said her injury was not an emergency. Case dropped.⁴⁷
2007	Russia	Yuri Larionov	Furosemide	Two-year suspension from ISU, reduced to eighteen months⁴⁸
2012	Ukraine	Anastasia Galyeta	Furosemide	Eighteen-month suspension from ISU⁴⁹
2013	Russia	Oksana Nagalati	Furosemide	One-year suspension from ISU, results from 2013 Junior Grand Prix (Slovakia) disqualified.⁵⁰
2013	Japan	Nana Sugiki⁵¹	Furosemide	Three-month suspension from Japan Anti-Doping Agency⁵²
2014	Russia	Adelina Sotnikova	(unknown)	Italian media named in conjunction with The McLaren Report⁵³. ISU announced that IOC Disciplinary Commission dropped investigation in 2017.⁵⁴
2014	Russia	Tatiana Volosozhar	(unknown)	Italian media named in conjunction with The McLaren Report⁵³. No outcome was ever announced publicly, but she had already retired.
2014	China	Chang Liu	Prednisolone	One-year suspension from ISU, result from the 2014 Four Continents Championships disqualified.⁵⁵
2015	Italy	Carolina Kostner	None (co-operation issue with investigation of ex-boyfriend's anti-doping case)	Sixteen-month suspension from Italian National Anti-Doping Tribunal⁵⁶, increased to twenty-one months after appeal for a two-year ban by Italian National Olympic Committee⁵⁷
2016	Russia	Ekaterina Bobrova	Meldonium	Missed the 2016 World Championships, suspension was lifted and result from 2016 European Championships not disqualified⁵⁸
2016	South Korea	Yelin Kim	None (failure to report for testing)	Warning and reprimand⁵⁹
2017	Kazakhstan	Darya Sirotina	(unknown)	One-year suspension from KAZ-NADC⁶⁰
2018	Russia	Ksenia Stolbova	(unknown)	Italian media named in conjunction with The McLaren Report⁵³. Not disqualified by the Oswald Commission but "not invited to compete" in the 2018 Winter Olympics by The Invitation Review Panel and the Olympic Athlete from Russia Implementation Group. IOC chief said athletes excluded had "serious indications" of doping in their history.⁶¹
2018	Russia	Ivan Bukin	(unknown)	Not disqualified by the Oswald Commission but "not invited to compete" in the 2018 Winter Olympics by The Invitation Review Panel and the Olympic Athlete from Russia Implementation Group. IOC chief said athletes excluded had "serious indications" of doping in their history.⁶¹
2018	Russia	Anastasia Shakun	Furosemide	One-year suspension from ISU, Disqualification of medals, points and prizes earned at 2018 Pavel Roman Memorial⁶²
2019	Russia	Alexandra Koshevaia	Torasemide	Two-year suspension from ISU⁶³
2019	France	Laurine Lecavelier	Cocaine	Two-year suspension from Collège de l’Agence française de lutte contre le dopage, Disqualification of medals, points and prizes earned from September 28-October 31, 2019⁶⁴
2020	Russia	Maria Sotskova	Furosemide, forged medical documents	Ten-year suspension from Figure Skating Federation Of Russia on recommendation of RUSADA (had already retired)⁶⁵
2021	United States	Jessica Calalang	4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid (metabolite of Meclofenoxate)	False positive, fully cleared by WADA and USADA in September of 2021⁶⁶
2021	Russia	Kamila Valieva*	Trimetazidine (in conjunction with hypoxen and L-Carnitine)⁶⁷	*investigation ongoing
2022	Russia	Valeria Starygina	(unspecified)	Two-year suspension from Figure Skating Federation Of Russia on recommendation of RUSADA⁶⁵
2022	Spain	Laura Barquero	Clostebol metabolite 4-chloro-3α-hydroxy-androst-4-en-17-one⁶⁹	*investigation ongoing

While figure skating simply hasn't historically had significantly high numbers of positive doping tests like track and field sports and weightlifting⁶⁸, that doesn't mean that it's not a major issue. Just because a mystery hasn't been solved doesn't mean a mystery doesn't exist.

THE RECEIPTS

Not a fan at all of footnotes, but due to the subject of tonight's lecture (which unfortunately isn't rhythm) I thought it was super important to "show my work". 

¹ The Manleywoman SkateCast, Interview with Frances Dafoe, April 3, 2012

² The Bangor Daily Times, "Skater Is Winning Her Battle Against Her Fear Of Food", August 28, 1993

³ Paul Dimeo, "A History of Drug Use in Sport 1876-1976: Beyond Good and Evil", 2009

⁴ Skating magazine, "ISU Council Meeting", November 1972

⁵ Skating magazine, "ISU Report" (John R. Shoemaker), November 1973

⁶ Benjamin T. Wright, "Skating Around The World 1892-1992 - The One Hundredth Anniversary History of the International Skating Union"

⁷ Skating magazine, "Sports Medicine: Brief" (Dr. Franklin S. Wilson), November 1984

⁸ The Globe And Mail, "Doping Outfoxes Officials" (Norman Webster), August 4, 1980

⁹ Benjamin T. Wright, "Skating Around The World 1892-1992 - The One Hundredth Anniversary History of the International Skating Union"

¹⁰ Sovetsky Sport, "Our First Olympic Medalist In Figure Skating Was Ruined By Vodka (Boris Valiev), December 23, 2006

¹¹ Benjamin T. Wright, "Skating In America: The 75th Anniversary History Of The United States Figure Skating Association"

¹² Skating magazine, "1983 USFSA Governing Council Meeting" (Ian A. Anderson), July 1983

¹³ Skating magazine, "Drug Use And The 'Chemical Edge' In Sports" (Dr. Thomas Kosten), January 1987

¹⁴ The Globe And Mail, "Sarajevo Rain Helps Martini" (James Christie), February 8, 1984

¹⁵ The Ottawa Citizen, "Some Calgarians Have Flu; Many Are Just Sick Of The Games" (Bruce Ward), February 24, 1988

¹⁶ The Vancouver Sun, "Olympic Notebook", February 29, 1988

¹⁷ The Ottawa Citizen, "Manley Fights Flu Bug On Eve Of Competition" (Martin Cleary), February 23, 1988

¹⁸ Aha!, "Rebel krasobruslení" (Monika Brabcová), 1996

¹⁹ The Vancouver Sun, "Skaters Checked", January 17, 1989

²⁰ Internationales Sportarchiv, "Heiko Fischer", January 8, 1990

²¹ Speed Skating News, "Anti-Doping-Kämpfer aus Überzeugung" (Matthias Opatz), September 10, 2009 

²² The Ottawa Citizen, "Klimova Tests Positive For Drug; Second Positive Result Would Give Duchesnays European Ice Dance Gold", February 12, 1991

²³ The Ottawa Citizen, "2nd Sample Clears Skater For Worlds", February 21, 1991

²⁴ The Globe And Mail, "Canada Doping Tests Attacked: Just Too Tough Skate Union Says" (James Christie), February 21, 1991

²⁵ Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (Stasi Records Archive)

²⁶ The Sunday Telegraph, "Doped Athletes Pay Tragic Price: For The Sports Stars Of The Old East Germany, It Was Win-At-Any-Cost" (Philip Sherwell), January 11, 1998

²⁷ Deutschlandfunk, "Schatten auf dem Eis" (Thomas Purschke), March 6, 2011

²⁸ Der Tagesspiegel, "Es wurde damals so gearbeitet", February 15, 2014

²⁹ WDR - Sport Inside, "Staatsdoping - Menschenversuche im DDR-Sport"

³⁰ Barbara Carol Cole, "The East German Sports System: Image And Reality", May 2000

³¹ Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (Stasi Records Archive)

³² Swimming World and Junior Swimmer, "Proof Of East German Drug Use" (Phillip Whitten), December 1994

³³ Opfer-Hilfe e.V. - Forum für selbstbestimmten Sport 

³⁴ Staatsdoping - Menschenversuche im DDR-Sport, "Dopingopferliste", September 9, 2019

³⁵ Star-Phoenix, "Bromantan Used By Cheats For Two Years", August 2, 1996

³⁶ Skating magazine, "2 At The Top: 1996 World Figure Skating Championships" (Peter K. Robertson), June 1996

³⁷ The Lancet, "Bromantan, A New Doping Agent" (Pascal Burnat, Alain Payen, Catherine Lu Brumant-Payen, Michel Hugon, Franck Ceppa), September 27, 1997

³⁸ Libération, "Dopage: Thierry Cerez Patine Dans La Nandrolone" (Christian Losson), March 6, 1998

³⁹ Doping - The Cases Decoded, Commented On By An Independent Expert From All National And International Bodies, "Thierry Cerez" (Dr. Jean-Pierre de Mondenard), December 25, 2020

⁴⁰ Libération, "Dopage: Le Patineur Thierry Cerez Innocente", June 27, 1998

⁴¹ Kingston Whig-Standard, "Berezhnaya Banned For Three Months", April 6, 2000

⁴² Kingston Whig-Standard, "Coach Takes Blame For Failed Doping Test" (Neil Stevens), March 28, 2000

⁴³ Skating magazine, "2000 World Championships" (Safvatore Zanca), May 2000

⁴⁴ ESPN.com, "Russian Pairs Champs Banned From World Championships" (Brooke Edwards), March 26, 2000

⁴⁵ BBC Sport, "Winter Olympics: Kamila Valieva Treatment By Entourage 'Chilling' - IOC" (Sonia Oxley), February 18, 2022

⁴⁶ World Anti-Doping Agency, The McLaren Report (Richard H. McLaren, IP in Sochi Investigation), December 9, 2016

⁴⁷ The Globe And Mail, "No Sanctions Expected For Ice Dancer" (January 28, 2006)

⁴⁸ ISU Communications 1493 and 1560, April 9, 2008 and May 2, 2009 (Decisions of ISU Disciplinary Committee)

⁴⁹ ISU Communication 1731, June 1, 2012 (Decision of ISU Disciplinary Committee)

⁵⁰ ISU Communication 1843, January 8, 2014 (Decision of ISU Disciplinary Committee)

⁵¹ Nikkan Sports, "Nana Sugiki Is Suspended For 3 Months Due To Drug Violation", October 16, 2013

⁵² Japan Anti-Doping Agency, 2013 Anti-Doping Rule Violation Decision List (JADA)

⁵³ La Gazetta dello Sport, "Ghiaccio, pattinaggio. Scandalo Sochi 2014. Sospetti sulla Sotnikova: Kostner d'argento?", December 30, 2016

⁵⁴ NBC Sports, "Adelina Sotnikova Cleared In Russia Doping Investigation", November 9, 2017

⁵⁵ International Skating Union, Full Decision of the Disciplinary Commission - Chang Liu, May 16, 2014

⁵⁶ CTV News, "Figure Skater Carolina Kostner Banned For 16 Months In Ex-Boyfriend's Doping Case", January 16, 2015

⁵⁷ Reuters, "Italy's Kostner Cleared To Compete Next Year", October 5, 2015

⁵⁸ CTV News, "Russian Athletes Plead To Be Allowed To Compete In Rio" (James Ellingworth), June 15, 2016

⁵⁹ International Skating Union, Full Decision of the Disciplinary Commission - Ms. Yelin Kim, November 28, 2016

⁶⁰ International Skating Union, Communication No. 2105, ISU Anti-Doping Program, Status of Skaters subject to a period of Ineligibility following an Anti-Doping Rule Violation

⁶¹ Reuters, "Olympics - Russia Ban Decision Was 'A Balance', Says IOC Chief Bach" (Karolos Grohmann), January 24, 2018

⁶² International Skating Union, Full Decision of the Disciplinary Commission - Ms. Shakun, April 8, 2019

⁶³ International Skating Union, Full Decision of the Disciplinary Commission - Ms. Koshvaia, October 9, 2019

⁶⁴ Agence française de lutte contre le dopage, "Décision relative à Mme Laurine Lecavelier", September 9, 2021

⁶⁵ RUSADA, The list of Athletes currently ineligible under decisions of the Russian Sport Federations, February 18, 2022

⁶⁶ Associated Press News, "US Pairs Skater Calalang Cleared Of Drug Violation" (Barry Wilner), October 14, 2021

⁶⁷ The New York Times, "Kamila Valieva's sample included three substances sometimes used to help the heart. Only one is banned." (Tariq Panja), February 15, 2022 (updated February 19, 2022)

⁶⁸ Kawasaki Journal of Medical Welfare, "A Historical Timeline of Doping in the Olympics (Part II 1970-1988)" (Michael Kremenik, Sho Onodera, Mitsushiro Nagao, Osamu Yuzuki, Shozo Yonetani), October 30, 2006

⁶⁹ International Testing Agency, "Beijing 2022 – The ITA asserts an apparent anti-doping rule violation against Spanish athlete Laura Barquero", February 22, 2022

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.