The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will start a hearing today in the doping case against the Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva. The meetings will last three to four days, and the decision will be announced in a few weeks or months.
Kamila Valieva could be stripped of several of her titles, including Olympic gold in the team event at the Beijing 2022 Games.
The hearings will be held behind closed doors in Lausanne, Switzerland, from September 26 to 28, with one other day listed as a reserve.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the International Skating Union (ISU) and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) are involved in the case. All three organizations do not agree with the January decision of the RUSADA Disciplinary Anti-Doping Commission on the Valieva case. Then the figure skater was found guilty of violating the anti-doping rules, but avoided serious punishment, since the commission did not find intent in her actions, but decided that the banned substance trimetazidine got into her body through no fault of hers.
Kamila Valieva was only deprived of the title of champion of Russia, won in December 2021, as she gave a positive test at this particular competition.
The 17-year-old Russian girl tested positive for the banned substance “trimetazidine”. It was detected in her sample from December 25, 2021, but the test result was not announced until February during the Beijing Games. By then, she had already won gold in the team event.
Kamila Valieva was allowed to participate in the individual tournament in Beijing 2022, in which she took fourth place. The figure skater is the 2022 European champion and holds the world records for the highest marks in the short program, the free program and the all-around.
