Kamila Valieva adds years – Sport – Kommersant

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) intends to achieve an extremely harsh punishment for the best Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, who was at the center of a very high-profile and procedurally complex doping scandal during the February Olympics in Beijing. WADA insists on a four-year disqualification of Ms. Valieva, as well as the annulment of all her fresh results. This means that the Russian national team may lose the Olympic gold won in the figure skating team tournament, and the career of a talented single skater will end on takeoff.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) announced that it had registered an appeal by the World Anti-Doping Agency related to the “Kamila Valieva case” (.pdf). WADA informed about it in early November.

The CAS report confirms that the case was transferred to the highest arbitration court in the sports industry, since the head structure considered that the domestic authorities responsible for investigating the incident and determining sanctions – the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) and the Disciplinary Anti-Doping Committee, which is not formally subordinate to it, were delaying the process. WADA, explaining their decision, explained that they “did not meet a reasonable deadline.”

From the CAS statement, it became clear what kind of punishment for Kamila Valieva the organization that filed the appeal insisted on. It looks extremely harsh.

WADA requires the skater to be suspended for the maximum period for a first-time doping violation without extenuating circumstances of four years, and to cancel all her official results from December 25, 2021.

This, by and large, will mean the end of Valieva’s recently launched adult career. And the fulfillment of the second condition will lead to the loss of the Russian team’s gold medal won by it in the team tournament of the February Olympics in Beijing. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has not yet held an official award ceremony for its winners.

The position of WADA looks unexpected, given that we are talking about one of the most procedurally complex doping processes in world sport in recent years. The fact that in the sample dated December 25, 2021 Kamila Valieva, the undisputed leader in the world women’s single skating of the previous season, the prohibited drug trimetazidine was found, became known during the February Olympics in Beijing, shortly after the end of the team tournament. The Russian team won it largely thanks to Valieva. She brought her 20 points out of 74, excelling in both the short and free programs.

It turned out that RUSADA, having learned about the test, temporarily suspended the athlete from the competition, but the suspension was successfully challenged in an independent disciplinary committee. The IOC, WADA, as well as the International Skating Union disagreed with his position and appealed to CAS. The protests were rejected.

At that time, CAS stated that a temporary suspension could not be imposed on Kamila Valieva due to exceptional circumstances. The fact is that, as a minor figure skater (she turned 16 in April), Valieva, in accordance with the World Anti-Doping Code, was the so-called protected person. This status implies the possibility of a special treatment of an athlete in those situations where he commits or is suspected of violating the rules, for example, in the form of a significant, up to a warning, mitigation of punishment. Kamila Valieva, who never admitted her guilt, was allowed to compete in the individual Olympic tournament, but took only fourth place in it.

RUSADA, which was ordered by the international sports authorities to investigate the incident with the figure skater, reported about its completion back in mid-September, referring to the same exceptional status of Kamila Valieva. Paragraph 4.1 of the International Standard for Results Management allows for the protection of the interests of young athletes to make confidential “all processes and procedures related to results management, including the prosecution and the final decision.”

The Russian agency clarified that “it does not intend to announce the date of the hearing, the decision or other details in the case of the figure skater”, who, like the vast majority of other domestic athletes, due to the sanctions imposed by international federations against the backdrop of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, this season only competes in domestic tournaments.

It is not known when the fate of Kamila Valieva and the Russian Olympic medal will become known. CAS warned that at the moment it cannot set a “time frame” for the consideration of the “Valieva case”.

Alexey Dospekhov