Tested positive at the end of December for a banned substance, the Russian skater Kamila Valieva, 15, was authorized on Monday to continue her Beijing Olympics, with the individual event on Tuesday of which she is the great favorite.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), without ruling on the merits of the case, confirmed the lifting of the provisional suspension of the teenager, decided last Wednesday by the Russian anti-doping agency (Rusada).
“Preventing the athlete from competing in the Olympics would cause him irreparable harm,” observed the three referees, even though his young age (under 16) implies specific rules of evidence and lighter sanctions.
The prodigy can therefore aim for Olympic gold individually, from her first season among seniors, even if nothing prevents her from being sanctioned within several months and seeing her results canceled, including for the Olympics. .
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has also announced in the process that it will await a decision on the consequences of the doping control to award the medals of the events in which Valieva will have participated in Beijing. No medals therefore immediately for the team event won by Russia, ahead of the United States and Japan, nor for the women’s event if Valieva finishes on the podium.
The short program for this women’s event is scheduled from 6 p.m. local time Tuesday (5 a.m. ET) and Valieva, who became the first skater to land quadruple jumps in Olympic history during the team competition a week ago, must skate at 9:52 p.m. local time (8:52 a.m. ET).
Unsurprisingly, the Russian Olympic Committee quickly welcomed this decision, citing “the best news of the day”, followed by the brand new Olympic vice-champion in ice dancing, the Russian Nikita Katsalapov who said “to be very happy (with the decision), adding a “Come on Kamila! “. »
“Systemic contempt”
Conversely, the United States Olympic Committee (USOPC) expressed its disappointment: according to USOPC President Sarah Hirshland, “athletes have a right to know that they are fighting with equal odds”: Unfortunately today this right has been denied. This appears to be a new chapter in Russia’s systemic and widespread disregard for clean sport,” she charged. »
The Russian teenager, a product of the harsh Eteri Tutberidze’s champion factory in Moscow, has only 24 hours to focus on the most important competition of her budding career, after several days of a huge storm.
Because it was not until last Tuesday, after the team event won by the Russians, that Valieva was notified of the positive result of an anti-doping test carried out by Rusada on December 25 in Saint Petersburg, during the Russian Championships.
This “late notification”, by the Stockholm laboratory in charge of the analysis, “prevented the athlete from reacting” even though she had nothing to do with it, explained to the press Matthieu Reeb, the general manager of the TAS. “If the procedures had been settled in 10 days as usual, I would not be here,” he said.
WADA, also expressing its disappointment, regretted that the Russian anti-doping agency did not warn the Stockholm laboratory that this control was “priority”.
The offending product is trimetazidine, a substance used to treat angina pectoris and banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) since 2014, because it promotes blood circulation.
This decision above all cast immense doubt on the future of Valieva’s Olympic destiny: temporarily suspended by Rusada at first, Valieva obtained the lifting of this measure the next day, for reasons that remained mysterious.
Tutberidze School
This led the IOC, but also WADA and the International Skating Federation, to appeal to the CAS against this decision.
Since the formalization of her positive control on Friday, Valieva continued to train conscientiously day after day, sometimes on the Olympic ice, sometimes on the training rink.
With the exception of a sound “hello” launched on Sunday morning, accompanied by members of the Russian management, she remained silent each time she crossed the press zone. She even hid her face behind her sweatshirt on Friday.
The Valieva affair started at the beginning of last week, when the IOC announced that the medal ceremony for the team competition was postponed for “legal” reasons.
The Russian press then mentioned a positive doping control of Valieva, but it was necessary to wait for a press release Friday from the ITA, the body responsible for the anti-doping program of the Olympics, to have confirmation.
Even if Valieva had been suspended, Russian skating and the Tutberidze school kept arguments since her main competitors are also her training partners, precisely Anna Shcherbakova, reigning world champion, and Alexandra Trusova, world and European medalist, 17 both years.
The Valieva affair, when it is examined on the merits, could also revive suspicions surrounding Russian sport, whose reputation is already well tarnished in terms of doping by the scandal of the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi.