Kamila Valieva, a Russian figure skater, will be prohibited from competing for four years after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) appeal.
The 17-year-old skater was initially exonerated of any misconduct in connection with a doping test conducted prior to the 2022 Winter Olympics following a Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) inquiry.
All of Valieva’s competitive results from December 25, 2021, onward, including her historic feat in Beijing where she became the first female skater to land a quadruple leap in an Olympic competition, are ruled to be void by the CAS verdict.
The United States is now in position to win gold, Japan silver, and Canada bronze after the podium is rearranged.
Questions concerning Valieva’s treatment as a juvenile, the testing protocols, and the substance’s effect on performance improvement are raised by the debate surrounding her positive test result for trimetazidine, a medication used to treat angina but prohibited for sports. When the medication was discovered, Valieva blamed it on “contamination by cutlery” that her grandfather—who took trimetazidine after obtaining an artificial heart—had shared.
WADA took use of the opportunity to emphasize the seriousness of doping in young athletes, declaring, “The doping of children is unforgivable,” and pushed legislators to take legislation that would make doping by kids illegal.
The Kremlin called the CAS ruling a “politicized” action, emphasizing that it represents a wider assault on Russian sports, while the United States applauded it as a win for clean athletes.
Valieva’s emotional state has suffered due to the incident; she tripped in the Beijing individual event, finishing in tears and falling from first to fourth under scrutiny. The US Anti-Doping Agency criticized the protracted settlement process, claiming that the two-year wait had “denied” true justice.
The International Skating Union (ISU), citing concerns for the “physical, mental, and emotional health” of participants, has raised the age limit for its senior division in response to the doping controversy.
