The whole world watched as Kamila Valiyeva fell on the ice at the Beijing Olympics in February. The 15-year-old Russian was considered an exceptional talent. She was the first runner to show quadruple jumps at the Olympics. With her freestyle, the young woman from Kazan first secured the Olympic victory in the team competition. Shortly thereafter, she was threatened with being excluded from the individual competition. The reason: Valiewa had tested positive for the heart drug trimetazidine on December 25, 2021 at the Russian Figure Skating Championships. The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada) allegedly only received this finding after this victory.
There were calls for the 15-year-old to be suspended, but the Cas International Sports Court rejected them. One of the reasons given was her minority, which makes her a “protected person” under the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) code. Valiewa was allowed to compete in women’s singles. But the fuss about her person clearly gave the young figure skater a hard time. She fell and botched several jumps and cried bitter tears when the points were awarded. In the end, she only finished fourth. Gold went to the Russian world champion Anna Shcherbakowa, silver to teammate Alexandra Trusowa. Kaori Sakamoto of Japan took bronze. “She should have been protected. She was a shadow of herself,” analyzed the former figure skater and today’s ARD expert Katharina Witt, who also fought back tears.
As a consequence of the debacle, the minimum age for figure skating was gradually raised to 17 years until the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo. That’s how old Valiewa would be. But it is questionable whether she will even be allowed to compete there. Because the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) has initiated arbitration proceedings against the 16-year-old, as was announced on Monday. She faces a four-year sentence and the withdrawal of all competition results she has achieved from December 25, 2021 – with all resulting consequences, including the loss of medals, points and prizes.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) had appealed to the court in Lausanne because the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada) had not yet made a decision. Wada bases its referral to the Arbitration Court on Article 15.3 of Rusada’s Anti-Doping Rules. According to the statement, the World Agency can call the Cas if a decision is not made in a case “within a reasonable time limit set by Wada” whether there has been a violation of the rules. The appeal was filed because Rusada failed to make a decision within the time limit set by Wada.
Watch the video: The doping case of Russian figure skater Kamila Valiyeva causes unrest at the Beijing Winter Olympics. The 15-year-old tested positive for the heart drug trimetazidine at the end of December. Sources: International Sports Court, DPA
