How does a 15 year old accidentally on her own take PEDs? Either she was deliberately given them, or she was put in a position where it was possible to take them accidentally.
But honestly, Russia has 100k troops ready to roll into Ukraine. Get it over with, and then get them all out of the f***ing Olympics.
It's not black and white at all. Pretty common for elite athletes to be given substances that are banned by their trainers/doctors unintentionally because it's so complex and there is an incredible amount of due diligence needed... Yes someone very likely screwed up. Doesn't mean this is some big widespread doping scheme or they intentionally drugged her. All of these elite athletes are getting so many damn supplements, vitamins, legal/allowed drugs, etc. that it's really not that hard to accidentally slip up somewhere there. Fireable offense for whoever screwed up as it's their job to get it right, sure.
Also, there's a ton of questionable/suspicious things going on in this case... The drug she tested positive for really isn't even performance enhancing for her in larger amounts let alone the trace amounts that were found. Trace amounts of it can come from other drugs that are allowed. Plus she's by far the best in her sport and certainly wouldn't need any performance enhancements, why in the world would they risk it knowing how under the microscope all Russian athletes are since 2014? The facts don't really add up to this being more Russian organized doping schemes. The positive test also came from a sample that was taken literally 2+ months ago and having nothing to do with the Olympics, and it wasn't even reviewed until coincidentally the day after she won an Olympic Gold medal. Really...? Samples I believe need to be tested in a certain timeframe and not sit for months like that. All her tests in this Olympics have been negative and clean, as have all of her teammates' tests.
I'm not making any definitive statements here, just there's a lot of questions and I'm not a fan of all the assumptions as I said before. Let the investigation play out and let the governing bodies review the case. We should know a bit more in the next few days but the US media and other larger media outlets around the world are incredibly anti-Russian and biased and are doing a disservice to the games as a whole with their ridiculous reporting here. Suggesting all Russian athletes be banned from competing because of a one-off questionable positive test? Come on.
And note, I'm not trying to defend them here, if the positive test is legit I absolutely believe they need to be stripped of that gold medal and Valieva needs to be suspended and removed from the games, absolutely sucks for her as it's not her fault at all, but even in the likelihood that it was accidental that does not excuse it and it's not fair to the other competitors. But it should end there. Russians already heavily scrutinized and tested like crazy, the media trying to put into question all other Russian athletes this year is completely absurd and unfair.
Not going to comment on the Ukraine situation, not really relevant to the Olympics or these athletes.