Kamila Valieva: Russian figure skater handed four-year doping ban as contamination claims dismissed

ByEurosport

Published 08/02/2024 at 09:06 GMT

Kamila Valieva has been handed a four-year ban – backdated to December 25, 2021 – following a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). CAS "concluded that Ms Valieva was not able to establish, on the balance of probabilities and on the basis of the evidence before the panel, that she had not committed the ADRV [anti-doping rule violation] intentionally."

Figure skater Kamila Valieva has been banned for four years, just two weeks after she was cleared by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA).

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) took the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after a disciplinary tribunal in Russia found that Valieva bore "no fault or negligence" over a doping breach which came to light during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

Valieva's case first grabbed the international spotlight in February 2022 when it was revealed that she, then aged 15, had tested positive for trimetazidine, a banned heart agent typically used to treat angina.

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Valieva actually tested positive on December 25, 2021, but the findings were only reported the day after she had led the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) to gold in the team figure skating competition in Beijing.

CAS cleared her to compete in the women's singles, where she topped the short programme before a succession of falls in the free skate saw her slip to fourth overall.

Valieva's ban has been backdated to December 25, 2021. And "the CAS panel also ordered the disqualification [of] all competitive results achieved" from that date.

In her evidence, Valieva claimed she might have ingested the banned substance as a result of contamination with her grandfather's medication.

"Having carefully considered all the evidence put before it, the CAS panel concluded that Ms Valieva was not able to establish, on the balance of probabilities and on the basis of the evidence before the panel, that she had not committed the ADRV [anti-doping rule violation] intentionally," said a statement released by CAS.

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However, CAS said it was "not within the scope" of the appeal to strip Russia of their team gold from Beijing, with that responsibility passing to "the sports organisations concerned".

The United States and Japan won silver and bronze respectively in the team event behind the ROC, with China taking fourth.

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