This Monday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS) punished Russian skater Kamila Valieva with a four-year suspension, retroactive to December 2021, following a known positive test during the Beijing’2022 Winter Olympic Games.
The 17-year-old prodigy athlete was punished after the Russian anti-doping agency (RUSADA) cleared her initially, as it understood that the athlete “did not commit any infraction or show any negligence”.
The teenager did not dispute the positive result of the test carried out on December 25, 2021 – trimetazidine was detected, a substance that improves blood circulation, banned since 2014 by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) -, claiming, at the time, aged 15, to be victim of “contamination through cutlery” that she shared with her grandfather, who took her to training every day and who had been treated with this substance since an artificial heart was fitted.
The TAS, which at the time did not have definitive evidence and authorized her to compete in the Games, now understands that the athlete “was unable to prove”, through convincing evidence, that she had not “intentionally” doped.
The justifications of the athlete and those responsible for her selection were contradicted by the fact that traces of other substances used to improve performance were also found, in this case L-carnitine and hypoxen.
The AMA was in favor of the TAS decision, stressing that “child doping is inexcusable” and that “doctors, coaches or other support personnel who are found guilty of providing performance-enhancing substances to minors must face the full severity of the World Anti-Doping Code.”
Controversy broke out in Beijing 2022, when Kamila Valieva won gold in the figure skating team competition and there was no podium ceremony, as, on the same day, it became known that the athlete had tested positive.
At issue is the long delay since the sample was collected by RUSADA, at Christmas 2021, and its counter-analysis in the Stockholm laboratory, approved by the AMA.
In the individual event – and given the great pressure on the young prodigy, who arrived as world junior champion and European senior champion – she got off to a brilliant start, becoming the first skater to land a quadruple jump in the Olympic Games. However, she ended up affected by several unusual errors, falling to fourth.
Kamila Valieva must thus drag Russia into losing its gold, which, if so, will be handed over to the United States.
The athlete has 30 days to appeal this decision to the Swiss Federal Court.