Russian figure skater Valieva received a four-year doping ban on Monday, effectively stripping her and the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) of their gold medal in the team event at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games nearly two years after the competition. In its long-awaited ruling, the highest court in sport found Valieva guilty of violating an anti-doping rule. The court ruled that Valieva was contaminated by traces of trimetazidine, a heart medication given to elderly patients, but banned for younger athletes because it enhances performance.
The case, which was brought by the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Skating Union, was thrown into confusion because a sample that Valieva provided at a Russian championship in December 2021 tested positive for the drug. But because of delays in a European lab overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic, the positive test wasn’t made public until Feb. 9, just a day after she had helped ROC win the team event. The tumult prompted the IOC to cancel that evening’s award ceremony.
Despite the legal chaos, Valieva competed in the Olympics and won a silver medal in the women’s free skate. But she could not defend her gold in the team event, which she had been favored to win. She dropped to fourth place after a disastrous error-filled performance, and the reaction of her coach, Eteri Tutberidze, was fiercely criticized by skating experts and even International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.
Afterward, the IOC held off on presenting the medals for the team event until it could resolve the matter. That left the three teams that finished ahead of ROC- and fourth-place finisher Canada- in a state of limbo and frustrated competitors who were still waiting for their medals from the event to be allocated.
In its verdict, the CAS judges upheld the appeals of WADA and the ISU. It ruled that because Valieva was a minor during the positive test, her age could not be used to reduce her punishment. The court also ruled that her “reprehensible conduct” meant she should not be allowed to use the defense of insufficient knowledge.
Valieva, who turns 18 next month, has yet to compete internationally since the Olympics but continues to appear in TV events and ice shows. Her lawyer said she plans to challenge CAS’s decision by seeking an appeal in Switzerland’s supreme court. However, Swiss law requires that appeals be based on narrow procedural grounds, not the case’s merits. That means Valieva would have to show that CAS had made an “error of principle” in its decision and that the verdict is invalid. The case has become the focal point for criticism of Russia’s state-sponsored doping scheme, which was uncovered at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. That scandal suspended all Russian athletes and their athletic federation, which has not yet been reinstated. Russian athletes who compete at the Olympics can use their own names and flags but cannot participate under the country’s name or with its anthem.
