Scandal at the 2022 Winter Games: Figure skater Valiyeva subsequently banned

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Kamila Valiyeva traveled to the Olympic Games as a great hope for gold

Photo: Bernat Armangue/dpa

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. She is said to have doped with a heart drug in December 2021 in the run-up to the Winter Games in Beijing.

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, Waliyeva's ban begins retroactively on December 25, 2021.

The World Anti-Doping Agency Wada welcomed the verdict and said: "Child doping is unforgivable." The Russian side continues to portray itself as a victim. The Figure Skating Federation announced that it would examine the ruling closely. 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's a great pity that such an honest, wonderful, talented person like Kamila has to deal with such harsh injustice at a young age," said the successful Russian coach Tatjana Tarasova. According to Valiyeva's defense attorneys, the figure skater had drunk from a glass from which her heart-sick grandfather had allegedly taken his medication. Wada expressed doubts about this representation from the start.

What happened at the Olympics?

The case of Valiyeva, now 17, has been preoccupying the sports justice system since the 2022 Winter Olympics. After the team competition, it became known that Valiyeva had tested positive for the banned drug trimetazidine at the Russian championships. Trimetazidine is a cardiac drug banned in sports that improves blood flow and can increase performance.

The Russian anti-doping agency Rusada then provisionally suspended Valiyeva, but lifted the sanction a day later, also to enable her to start in the individual competition. Because of several objections, Waliyeva's case ended up in a fast-track procedure before the Cas.

There, the members decided that the figure skater should not be excluded from the games. This is the only way to prevent “irreparable damage” from happening to her as a minor. In the event that the Russian woman wins the individual competition, there should be no award ceremony. The medals in the team competition have not been awarded to this day.

Valiyeva was considered the big favorite for the gold medal - and failed dramatically during the course of the competition. Under public pressure, she fell several times, burst into tears and was scolded for it by her controversial coach Eteri Tutberidze. The pictures of the crying teenager and the trainer went around the world.

Tutberidze was criticized for her training methods and her views on doping substances. She is said to have said in a television interview in April 2019 that it annoyed her to have to find an alternative to meldonium. Meldonium was added to the WADA banned list in 2016 and has been considered doping ever since.

Cas was supposed to resolve disputes between Wada, Isu and Rusada

The Cas sports judges then took over the case again in autumn 2022 because Wada and the World Ice Skating Association (Isu) had objected to the lenient ruling by the Russian anti-doping agency Rusada. The Rusada had only stripped Valiyeva of the national championship title, but had not imposed any further sanctions. “No guilt or negligence” could be proven.

The Russian Anti-Doping Agency had been unrecognized and suspended from international sport since 2015. At that time it became known that Russia was operating an institutionalized doping system. To date, Russia's doping past has not been dealt with. The suspension was lifted at the end of 2022, but WADA is not in sight of re-approval for the time being. Because of the war of aggression against Ukraine, Russian athletes are excluded from many international sports competitions or are only allowed to compete as neutral athletes.

WADA had initiated the CAS procedure in order to obtain a four-year ban for Waliyeva. The Isu wanted the sports court 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.

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 disclosed, which was not possible because of her participation in the Beijing Games. In the event of a doping violation, these people are subject to a less severe penalty list than for older athletes; Waliyeva could be banned for a maximum of two years. The Cas panel, on the other hand, has now concluded that there was no scope for more lenient treatment than for an adult who has committed an anti-doping rule violation.

There has already been an innovation to protect children: As of this year, ice skating professionals must be at least 17 years old in order to compete in international competitions.

ast/dpa/sid/Reuters