CAS bans Russian figure skater Valieva for doping

The Court of Administration for Sport (CAS) announced on Monday that it had banned Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva for a period of four years – with the time frame beginning a few weeks before the opening of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

"Kamila Valieva is found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation and sanctioned with a four-year period of ineligibility commencing on 25 December 2021," a statement issued by the Lausanne-based court said.

Valieva's lawyers had argued that her positive test had been caused by contamination by traces of a heart medication they said her grandfather used.

"Having carefully considered all the evidence put before it," the court said, "the CAS panel concluded that Ms. Valieva was not able to establish, on the balance of probabilities and on the basis of the evidence before the Panel, that she had not committed the (doping violation) intentionally."

Reallocation of medals expected

The court added that all competitive results achieved from that date forward were voided – including the gold medal she helped the ROC to win in the team event at the 2022 Games.

As a result, the ROC is expected to be stripped of the gold medal in the team event. The United States, who had finished second, stand to be awarded gold, with third-placed Japan moving up to silver and Canada, who had finished off the podium, in line for bronze.

However, the CAS statement noted that decisions such as any reallocation of medals were "not within the scope of this arbitration procedure and will have to be examined by the sports organisations concerned."

No benefit to having been a minor

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had decided not to present any medals following the team event, where the then-15-year-old Valieva was one of the biggest stars – just hours before her positive test for a banned heart medicine was revealed.

The judges also decided that under Russian anti-doping rules, Valieva could not benefit from having been a minor at the time of the positive test.

There was "no basis under the rules to treat them any differently from an adult athlete," said the court, which did not publish its detailed verdict pending a review of confidentiality issues.

CAS said the ruling upheld appeals led by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which had asked the court to disqualify the now 17-year-old Valieva from the Olympics and ban her. A Russian sports tribunal had cleared her of any blame.

The ban is to last until December 2025, about seven weeks before the next Winter Olympics are scheduled to open in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.

Update: After this article was published on January 29, 2024, the International Skating Union (ISU) announced that as a result of the CAS decision, the United States would be awarded the gold medal, while silver would go to Japan. The ROC would be awarded the bronze medal as according to the ISU's scoring system, they still had one more point than Canada, despite the deduction of Valieva's points.

The Canadian federation, Skate Canada, have said they "strongly" disagree with the reallocation of medals and would "consider all options to appeal this decision."

pfd/km (AP, Reuters)