Olympic figure skater Valiyeva
Two years after the Russian Olympic scandal, the verdict is here
Status: 29.01.2024 | Reading time: 3 minutes
“The day the Olympic Games died,” was the headline in the Daily Telegraph when Kamila Valiyeva was allowed to compete at the 2022 Games in Beijing
Quelle: picture alliance/dpa/Peter Kneffel
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It was the Beijing Winter Games scandal. The Kamila Valiyeva doping case has been preoccupying the sports courts for two years. The International Court of Arbitration for Sport Cas has now decided and banned her for a long time. The Russians react with complete incomprehension.
Almost two years after the Olympic scandal involving Kamila Waliyeva, the Russian figure skater was subsequently banned for four years by the International Court of Arbitration for Sport. This means that Russia’s team is also likely to lose the team gold it won with the then 15-year-old at the Winter Games in Beijing. The US selection would then be declared Olympic champions. According to the Cas decision published on Monday, Waliyeva’s ban begins retroactively from December 25, 2021.
The case of Valiyeva, who is now 17 years old, has been keeping sports lawyers busy since the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. After the team competition, the figure skater had a positive doping test. Valiyeva tested positive for the banned drug trimetazidine at the national championships in December 2021.
Since Valiyeva was only 15 years old at the time, she was considered a “protected person” under the World Anti-Doping Code whose identity should not have been revealed. The secrecy failed. Walijewa’s legally enforced start in the Olympic women’s singles ended as a scandal with a tearful routine, the favorite only ended up in fourth place.
Initial reactions in Russia showed complete incomprehension. The Russian Figure Skating Federation announced that it would closely examine the verdict. Since the Federation is not taking part in the proceedings, the verdict is only known from publicly available sources, said Secretary General Alexander Kogan. “We assume that our athletes will be Olympic champions in the team competition,” he said, according to the Tass agency. “It is a great pity that such an honest, wonderful, talented person like Kamila has to deal with such harsh injustice at a young age,” said Russian success coach Tatjana Tarasova. “The hatred of our country has been transferred to them.”
In Russia, Valiyeva got off lightly
The Kremlin criticized the ban as politically motivated. “Of course we don’t agree with this,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday in St. Petersburg. If there are legal remedies against the ruling of the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas), then Russia should use them, he said, according to the Tass agency. “We have to defend the interests of our athletes to the last.” When it comes to doping allegations against individual athletes as well as against its sports system, Russia usually sees itself as a victim of alleged Western intrigues.
The Cas sports judges took over the case in autumn 2022 because the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) and the World Ice Skating Association (Isu) had lodged an objection against the ruling by the Russian anti-doping agency Rusada. Rusada had only stripped Valiyeva of the national championship title, but had not imposed any further sanctions. “No guilt or negligence” could be proven.
WADA initiated the CAS procedure to obtain a four-year ban for Waliyeva. The Isu wanted the Court of Arbitration for Sports to impose “a ban at its own discretion” and make a final decision on the results of the team competition at the 2022 Olympics. On the other hand, Rusada demanded that Valiyeva be allowed to sanction autonomously in accordance with its guidelines.
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