Nina Mozer ( Нина Мозер) is a Russian pair skating coach based in Moscow. She is best known for coaching Tatiana Volosozhar / Maxim Trankov and Ksenia Stolbova / Fedor Klimov, the 2014 Olympic gold and silver medalists. She is also known for working as a consultant for U.S. Figure Skating and giving lessons to many of Team USA's top pairs. Mozer has also been a close collaborator with Dr. Shvetsky since he entered the figure skating world. Of the athletes who have worked with Mozer, many have been connected to doping scandals.
In December 2007, Vera Bazarova and Yuri Larionov won gold at the 2007 Junior Grand Prix Final. However, in January 2008, they were disqualified and stripped of the medal due to a doping violation found in a blood sample Larionov gave before the Final. Larionov was suspended for two years, beginning on 18 January 2008. His sentence was later reduced to 18 months and ended on 17 July 2009.
In December 2017, Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov placed fourth at the ISU Grand Prix Final. They then won another pair of silver medals, first at the 2018 Russian Championships and then at the 2018 European Championships. They weren't sent to the 2018 Winter Olympics because it was announced by the Russian Figure Skating Federation on 23 January 2018 that Stolbova wasn't invited to the 2018 Olympics.
Tatiana Volosozhar accompanied Dr. Shvetsky to China to perform presentations about the benefits of Xenon gas.
Other Russian skaters also suffered doping violations in recent years.
Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev won the bronze medal at the 2016 European Championships. On 7 March 2016, Bobrova announced that she had tested positive for meldonium. Expressing "shock" about the test result, she stated that she had been aware of meldonium's addition to the banned list (on 1 January 2016) and had been careful to avoid products containing banned substances. Bobrova's suspension was subsequently lifted by the ISU, which stated it had decided "to stay the results management process and consequently not to disqualify any results at the present stage."
Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin were not sent to the 2018 Winter Olympics because it was announced by the Russian Figure Skating Federation on 23 January 2018 that the International Olympic Committee did not invite Bukin to compete.
In July 2020, Maria Sotskova announced her retirement from competitive skating. Over two months after her retirement, she received a 10-year disqualification from the sport by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency for forging a medical certificate to explain a doping violation; it was later reported that Sotskova was using the banned diuretic furosemide. The Figure Skating Federation of Russia issued a verdict in March 2021 based on the RUSADA decision to disqualify Sotskova until April 5, 2030, backdating the start of her ban to April 2020.
At the 2001 World Championships in Madrid, Spain, Alina Kabaeva won the gold medal for the Ball, Clubs, Hoop, Rope, the Individual All-Around, and the Team competitions. At the 2001 Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia, Kabaeva won the gold medal for the Ball, Clubs, and Rope competitions, and the Silver in the Individual All-Around, and Hoop. However, Kabaeva and her teammate, Irina Tchachina, tested positive to a banned diuretic (furosemide), and were stripped of their medals.
Viner, the Russian head coach, who also served as the Vice President of the FIG Rhythmic Gymnastics Technical Committee at the time, said her gymnasts had been taking a food supplement called "Hyper", that contained mild diuretics, which, according to Viner, the gymnasts were taking for premenstrual syndrome. When the supply ran out shortly before the Goodwill Games, the team physiotherapist restocked at a local pharmacy. According to Viner, the supplement sold there was fake and contained furosemide. The Committee requested that the Goodwill Games Organizing Committee nullify Kabaeva and Tchachina's results. The FIG also nullified their results from the World Championships in Madrid, causing Ukraine's Tamara Yerofeeva to be declared the 2001 world champion. Kabaeva was not allowed to participate in competitions from August 2001 to August 2002. Her first international competition after the ban was the 2002 European Championships, where she took first place in the individual all-around.
In February 2022, Kamila Valieva was reported to have also tested positive for trimetazidine and two other drugs that are not banned from competition, hypoxen and L-carnitine, from her 25 December urine sample. The combination of these drugs with trimetazidine was described as a "trifecta of substances" which "seem to be aimed at increasing endurance, reducing fatigue and promoting greater efficiency in using oxygen".
I called Meagan Duhamel to get her take on Nina Mozer, Dr. Shvetsky and the Russian doping scandal.
