The 15-year-old had won the team event at the 2022 Beijing Olympics with her country. The collective medal is currently blocked and the individual competition compromised.
Another Russian doping scandal? According to the Kommersant newspaper, the postponement of the medal ceremony scheduled for Tuesday in Beijing for the team figure skating competition – for reasons “legal”, had eluded the IOC without further details – would be linked to a positive doping control concerning the skater Kamila Valieva. Which could deprive Russia of the title.
Kommersant said on Thursday that the substance identified in Valieva’s analyzes would be trimetazidine, used to relieve angina pectoris and banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency since 2014. According to the RBC daily, another Russian media, the control was carried out in December .
Valieva is not just anyone: favorite of the individual event which should start next Tuesday, she is, at 15, the new sensation of figure skating. Since her arrival on the senior circuit in 2021, the teenager, trained by the renowned and severe Eteri Tutberidze, has had a string of successes in Grands Prix and flew over the European Championships in Tallinn last month. During the team event earlier this week, she even became the first woman to land quadruple jumps at the Olympics, during her free program.
The case revives suspicions of doping concerning Russia, mired since 2014 in a vast state scandal, marked by repeated cheating going back to the highest level of the government, which earned him in 2020 an exclusion for two years of major international competitions. As at the Tokyo Olympics this summer, Russian athletes participate in the Beijing Games under the acronym ROC (Russian Olympic Committee) and without the national flag.
The CAS not yet seized
International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams said Thursday in Beijing during the Olympic body’s daily press briefing that he had no “no comment to make” on “a situation that has all sorts of implications” and qualified as “total speculation” information that it was a doping case. “I imagine everyone (in charge) working as quickly as possible. We are aware that for the athletes (concerned by the medal ceremony), they want to reach a quick outcome”says Mark Adams.
Thursday morning, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), whose anti-doping chamber validates decisions on anti-doping sanctions, ensures that it had no “not yet seized for this case”. The International Testing Agency (ITA), competent to carry out checks on the sites of the Olympic Games, for its part published a press release to explain that it had no announcement to make for the time being.
“The ITA is aware of the various articles circulating regarding the postponement of the medal ceremony for the team figure skating event at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Any announcements related to these events would still be posted on the ITA website and would not be the subject of any further comment. No such announcement has been published at this stage.indicates this instance.