Russians clear doping skater
Fury over Valieva ‘not at fault’ ruling
RUSSIAN anti-doping authorities have ruled that Kamila Valieva, the teenage skater at the centre of the drugs scandal that rocked last year’s Winter Olympics, was not at fault for her positive test.
In a controversial ruling that will be appealed against by the World AntiDoping Agency, the Russian AntiDoping Agency (RUSADA) found Valieva ‘bore no fault or negligence’.
Valieva faced being stripped of the skating team gold she won as a 15-yearold in Beijing — a victory quickly followed by the revelation that she had tested positive in December 2021 for the banned substance trimetazidine.
Valieva’s legal team went on to claim in the subsequent storm that she may have accidentally ingested heart medication belonging to her grandfather by sharing a glass of water.
RUSADA have not disclosed an explanation for why they cleared Valieva, having said they will conduct their affairs in private as the skater was a minor at the time of the positive.
However, WADA, who will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, said: ‘The (RUSADA) tribunal found that although the athlete had committed an anti-doping rule violation, she bore “no fault or negligence” for it. As such, the tribunal imposed no sanction except for the disqualification of her results on the date of the sample collection.
‘Based on the elements of the case with which WADA is already familiar, the agency is concerned by the finding and will exercise its right of appeal.’
US Anti-Doping chief Travis Tygart was scathing of the RUSADA verdict. He said: ‘WADA and the ISU (International Skating Union) have to appeal this decision, for the sake of the credibility of the anti- doping system and the rights of all athletes.
‘The world can’t possibly accept this self- serving decision by RUSADA, which has been a key instrument of Russia’s state-sponsored doping fraud. Justice demands a full, fair, public hearing outside of Russia.’
In the midst of the doping storm caused by Valieva’s positive, the gold medal favourite was cleared to compete in the individual competition by the International Olympic Committee, but failed to finish in the top three.