End of suspense.

The young Russian skater Kamila Valieva, 15, was authorized on Monday to continue her Beijing Olympics, with the individual event on Tuesday (short program) and Thursday (free program) of which she is the big favorite.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), without ruling on the merits of the case, confirmed the lifting of the provisional suspension of the teenager, decided last Wednesday by the Russian anti-doping agency (Rusada).

"Preventing the athlete from competing in the Olympics would cause him irreparable harm," observed the three referees, even though his young age (under 16) implies specific rules of evidence and reduced penalties.

The young prodigy can therefore continue to defend her chances of individual Olympic gold, from her first season among seniors, even if nothing prevents her from being sanctioned within several months and seeing her results canceled there. included for the Olympics.

Valieva became the first skater to land quadruple jumps in Olympic history during the team competition won by Russia a week ago.

Since then, the teenager has been at the heart of a storm.

Because it was not until last Tuesday, after the team gold medal, that Valieva was notified of the positive result of an anti-doping test carried out by Rusada on December 25 in Saint Petersburg, during the Russian Championships.

A substance to treat angina pectoris

This “late notification”, by the Stockholm laboratory in charge of the analysis, “prevented the athlete from reacting” even though she had nothing to do with it, explained to the press Matthieu Reeb, the general manager of the TAS.

"If the procedures had been settled in 10 days as usual, I would not be here," he said.

The offending product is trimetazidine, a substance used to treat angina pectoris and banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) since 2014, because it promotes blood circulation.

In the immediate future, this announcement has delayed the medal ceremony for the team event, which will "probably not" take place before the end of the Olympic Games, the spokesperson for the International Olympic Committee announced on Monday morning.

Above all, it cast immense doubt on the future of Valieva's Olympic destiny: temporarily suspended by Rusada at first, Valieva obtained the lifting of this measure the next day, for reasons that remained mysterious.

This led the IOC, but also WADA and the International Skating Federation, to appeal to the CAS against this decision.

She never stopped training

Since the formalization of her positive control on Friday, Valieva continued to train conscientiously day after day, sometimes on the Olympic ice, sometimes on the training rink.

With the exception of a sound "hello" launched Sunday morning, accompanied by members of the Russian management, she remained silent at each of her crossings of the mixed zone.

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Olympics 2022: What does Russian skater Kamila Valieva's training camp look like?

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Olympics 2022: Valieva well tested positive before the Games, CAS decision to come

  • China

  • doping

  • Figure skating

  • Sport

  • Russia

  • Winter Olympics 2022

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