Kamila Valieva, the Russian figure skater who won the team Olympic championship in 2022, has tested positive for trimetazidine – a medication used to treat people with a heart condition – at the Russian Championships. The case will be examined by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Tuesday, September 26, according to News.ro.
The 17-year-old athlete was authorized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to participate in the Beijing Olympics in February 2022, despite testing positive for trimetazidine two months earlier at the Russian Championships.
Kamila Valieva’s participation in the Beijing Games contributed to the Russians’ Olympic team title, after she stood out for her executed quadruple jump, which no other skater had achieved before. Following the athlete’s performance, the IOC stated that no medal would be awarded until the case regarding Valieva’s doping allegations is resolved.
An independent commission of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) exonerated the skater of any wrongdoing. However, RUSADA itself, along with the International Skating Federation and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), brought the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne.
The CAS decision is expected in a few months
Kamila Valieva will be heard by the authority in Lausanne over three days via video conference.
In addition, CAS has already announced that the hearings will not be open to the public and rejected the request from the US team, who won the silver medal at the Olympics, to have an observer present during the proceedings.
The Lausanne tribunal has not set a date for the verdict. According to doping experts, the decision is expected in a few months.
WADA has stated that it seeks a four-year suspension for the athlete, however, such a decision would automatically invalidate the results achieved by the skater so far and deprive the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) of the Olympic team title.
In February 2022, the International Olympic Committee announced that the athlete, who tested positive for doping on Christmas Day, claimed that the positive result was caused by accidental contamination with heart medication taken by her grandfather.
