During the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, a then 15 year old Russian skater named Kamila Valieva was charged with testing positive for a banned substance. Behind in the testing, the sample was from before the Russian skating championship.
Now 19, Valieva went before the Court of Arbitration for Sport for a final appeal on her four year ban due to that positive test. The CAS denied the appeal. Along with the ban, Valieva was fined a total of 23,000 Swiss francs ($28,700) – 7,000 for court costs and 8,000 each to the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Skating Union.
Only 15 at the time of the testing, Valieva was deemed not responsible for her actions.
The Russian team stated that the sample had been contaminated by a strawberry desert prepared by her grandfather who was prescribed the banned substance by athletes.
Due to the ruling by the CAS, Valieva’s scores were disallowed, dropping the Russian team from first to third in the overall competition. As a result, the U.S. skating team was awarded the gold medals – which they finally received during the 2024 Summer Games in Paris.
Valieva’s lawyers presented an article that stated it was not impossible that the sample could have been contaminated by the medication as stated in court. The panel rejected the argument.
Retroactive back to the 2022 Olympics, Valieva is scheduled to have the ban lifted this December and was allowed to begin training again last week. But she will not be permitted to compete in the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milan in February.
feature photo courtesy of the AP