Beijing, China | AFP | The prodigious Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, at the center of a doping case in the middle of the Beijing-2022 Olympic Games, where she is called to be one of the stars, will know on Monday if she can continue her participation in the event, a week later have won the team event.
The Arbitration Court of Sport (CAS) will decide if Valieva can participate a day later in the women’s contest, the agency announced this Saturday.
The CAS must study the appeal of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to lift the suspension by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada), after a positive occurred on December 25 at the Russian Championship and known on February 8.
The hearing of the CAS chamber will take place by videoconference on Sunday at 8:30 p.m. in Beijing (12:30 GMT), the legal body indicated.
“After the hearing, the jury will deliberate and prepare its decision. This decision is expected to be notified to the affected parties on Monday,” the CAS added.
Valieva, 15 years old and already proclaimed Olympic team champion in Beijing, tested positive for trimetazidine, a substance to treat angina pectoris, in that anti-doping control at the end of December.
provisional suspension
La Rusada provisionally suspended the skater, champion the day before with the Russian team in Beijing. But on Wednesday Valieva appealed and managed to lift her suspension, for reasons still unknown, which allows her to continue her participation in the Games, and continue training, as she did this Saturday.
The ITA, the body in charge of anti-doping controls during the Games, and the International Olympic Committee, joined by the International Skating Federation (ISU), as the CAS specified on Saturday, announced an appeal to obtain a decision before 15 February, day of the women’s individual short program.
Thus, Valieva’s participation is subject to the decision of the CAS.
He will only have little more than 24 hours left to prepare the most important short program of his young career, if the CAS rejects the appeal of the international sports authorities.
Otherwise, if the CAS agrees with the IOC, Valieva will no longer be able to skate at the Games.
The Valieva case began earlier this week when the IOC announced that the medal ceremony for the team event won by Russia, under a neutral flag, was postponed for “legal” reasons, without offering further details.
Pending the decision of the CAS, Valieva continues to prepare to participate in the test.
The Russian trained again on Saturday in Beijing at 1:55 p.m. local time (05:55 GMT). The 2022 European champion, unbeaten so far this season, entered the ice rink first alongside Anna Shcherbakova, her compatriot, current world champion and training partner, under the orders of the renowned and severe Eteri Tutberidze in Moscow.
Valieva Training
The teenager trained for forty minutes, skating her short program as a whole, with a fall on her first jump.
Later he met with Tutberidze, present at the edge of the track. The coach spoke in her ear for a long time and then hugged her.
Tutberidze defended her pupil on the Russian channel Pervy: “I am absolutely sure that Kamila is innocent and clean (…) I understand that there is a protocol of actions that must be respected. We have not abandoned our athlete in any case, we are with our athletes in the sorrows and in the joys until the end”, he pointed out.
For his part, the president of the Russian Figure Skating Federation, Alexandre Gorchkov, described this case in a statement published on Saturday as “a crazy story that raises too many questions. Once again I say it: we do not doubt the honesty of our athlete.” .
