MADRID, 14 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva will be able to continue competing at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) refused to provisionally suspend her after it was found that she had tested positive for trimetazidine in a test held before the chinese date
“The requests submitted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Skating Union (ISU) have been dismissed,” CAS said in a statement on Monday.
The three organizations had submitted urgent allegations to the decision made on February 9 by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), which decided to lift the provisional sanction of Valieva, who had tested positive for trimetazidine at the Russian Figure Skating Championship, and allowed him to participate in the Chinese appointment.
Thus, the TAS has ruled in favor of RUSADA by considering that Valieva, 15, is a “protected person” by the World Anti-Doping Code due to her status as a minor, and that therefore the entire process must be kept in the anonymity, a circumstance that has been broken after the appearance of his case in the media.
“The athlete did not test positive during the Olympic Games and is still subject to a disciplinary sanction for the positive in the anti-doping control carried out in December 2021 (…) Preventing the athlete from competing in the Olympic Games would cause her irreparable damage in these circumstances,” he said. “There were serious problems of untimely notification of the results of the athlete’s anti-doping test that was carried out in December 2021 (…) The late notification was not her fault. The Panel determined that allowing the lifting of the provisional suspension was appropriate “, he added.
Last Friday, the International Testing Agency (ITA) confirmed the positive of Kamila Valieva, who became the first woman in history to achieve a quadruple jump during the Beijing 2022 figure skating team event.
The ITA, in charge of anti-doping tests at the Games, reported that on December 25, 2021, the young Russian underwent a test, under the management of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), during the Russian Figure Skating Championship in Saint Petersburg. which was analyzed by the Stockholm laboratory, accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). He reported that the sample had tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine. As a result, RUSADA suspended it “provisionally with immediate effect.”
Said sanction prevented the athlete from participating in any event, including the Beijing 2022 Winter Games; however, as the sample was collected by RUSADA prior to the Games, it was not under the jurisdiction of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The ITA informed the skater of her suspension and that it was binding on the IOC, without making her name public, but she challenged the provisional suspension before the RUSADA Anti-Doping Disciplinary Committee on February 9, which lifted said sanction and allowed him to participate in Peking.
Valieva, current European champion, made history on February 8 by being the first woman in history to sign a quadruple jump in a Games, by getting two in the figure skating team event, in which Russia finally hung gold medal.