Doping, “Kamila Valieva not guilty” for Russia, Wada appeals to the CAS and asks for 4 years – Corriere.it

The doping case of Kamila Valieva, a 16-year-old Russian figure skating phenomenon who tested positive on 25 December 2021 for a test but kept competing at the Beijing Olympics — where she won team gold, also becoming the first female athlete to complete a jump quadruple at the Games but, having learned the positivity, she collapsed in the individual competition also suffering the harsh reproaches of the coach Eteri Tutberidze — she arrives again at the Tas, the supreme tribunal of Sport, this time at the request of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada).

In January the Russian anti-doping agency (Rusada) had ruled that the athlete was not responsible for infractions of the anti-doping code despite the substances found in his urine were three: the trimetazidinethe drug to treat angina (totally forbidden to athletes), the L-Carnitine and Hypoxen, two borderline drugs. The second, in particular, developed in Russia in the 1970s, which cannot be marketed abroad, according to the manufacturer, would reduce «oxygen consumption and increase the body’s ability to work in extreme situations.

A year ago, the «ad hoc Olympic» division of the Lausanne Court of Arbitration gave reasons why the girl had been allowed to participate in the Olympics where, by the way, the Team Event medal has not yet been awarded (Russia first, USA second, Japan third and Canada fourth) with the fact that the young woman, having less than 16 years, was a “protected” athlete, that is, «mentally unable to know and appreciate the prohibitions of the Anti-Doping Code». This however should not have canceled the disqualification.

Now Rusada’s investigation has found the teenager innocent, while the Wada seeks a four-year ban and that the Russian Disciplinary Court’s decision on “not guilty or negligent” is “wrong under the terms of the World Anti-Doping Code” by exercising the right to resort to the CAS and obtain a four-year suspension and the annulment of all results.

Valieva defended herself by arguing that the positivity was due to a mistake with grandfather’s medicines and Rusada found her “not guilty” of an infraction. The ball — and the Team Event medals — passes to Lausanne. On February 8, the American Ice Federation had issued a statement complaining officially the non-awarding of the Beijing prizes more than a year after the conclusion of the tenders. The following day instead, in Moscow, Vladimir Putin awarded the controversial coach of Valieva and other Russian prodigies, Tutberidze.