Tested positive at the end of December for a banned substance, the 15-year-old teenager was authorized on Monday to participate in the individual event of the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday, announces the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Kamila Valieva has the right to dream of Olympic gold in individual skating in Beijing. Twenty-four hours from the women’s figure skating event, the Russian teenager, a huge favorite for Olympic gold but tested positive for a prohibited substance, received the green light on Monday from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and will be able to so show up on the ice on Tuesday for the short program. Its passage is scheduled at 9:52 p.m. local (2:52 p.m. French).
Seized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) but also WADA and the International Skating Federation, the panel of the CAS ad hoc chamber heard the parties for six hours until early Monday morning by videoconference. Before confirming around 2 p.m. local time (7 a.m. in France) the lifting of the provisional suspension of Valieva by the Russian anti-doping agency (Rusada), considering that depriving her of a test before even having examined the merits of the case would cause him harm “irreparable”.
The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) describes the decision as “best news of the day” on its Telegram channel, while the American Olympic Committee says to itself “disappointed”. The young prodigy, she has only some twenty-four hours to refocus on the competition – the most important of her budding career – after an incredible first Olympic week.
Present at all training
Pure product of the champion factory of the severe Eteri Tutberidze in Moscow, crowned European champion a month ago and until then undefeated for her first winter as seniors, Valieva has been caught up in an embarrassing doping case in full Beijing Games. Tested on December 25 at the Russian championships in Saint Petersburg by the Russian anti-doping agency (Rusada), Valieva’s positive result was only known on February 8. Either the day after his shared victory with the Russians in the team event, whose medal ceremony has still not taken place. An event during which Valieva caused a sensation, becoming the first skater to land quadruple jumps in Olympic history. The “quad girl” dominated both the short program, brushing her recent world record, and the free program, with nearly thirty points ahead of the second, the Japanese Kaori Sakamoto.
The offending product is trimetazidine, used to treat angina pectoris and banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) since 2014, because it promotes blood circulation. Temporarily suspended by Rusada at first, Kamila Valieva obtained the lifting of this sanction the next day.
Since the formalization of her positive control on Friday, she continued to train conscientiously day after day, sometimes on the Olympic ice, sometimes on the training rink. She should be ready to try to grab a second Olympic title in Beijing.