BEIJING DRAMA
Russian skater Valieva, 15, could be kicked out of Winter Olympics and stripped of gold medal after positive drugs test
RUSSIAN figure skater Kamila Valieva could be kicked out of the Beijing Winter Olympics and stripped of a gold medal following a positive drugs test taken on Christmas Day.
The 15-year-old is at the centre of one of the most explosive legal wranglings in Olympic history and her entire competitive fate in China will be determined by lawyers off the ice.
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Sensational Valieva stole the show last Monday as the first female figure skater to land a quadruple jump at a Games in the women’s short program at the city’s Capital Indoor Stadium.
The incredible score of 178.92 helped the Russian Olympic Committee to win the team event – the USA won silver while Japan took bronze – but the medals ceremony the next day was postponed.
The International Testing Agency announced on Friday morning the results of a test sample collected on December 25 during the Russian Figure Skating Championships in Saint Petersburg.
The WADA-accredited laboratory of Stockholm reported that the sample had returned an Adverse Analytical Finding for the non-specified prohibited substance trimetazidine on February 8.
This was the day after the gold medal-winning team event and she was provisionally suspended by the Russian anti-doping agency with immediate effect and barred from skating again in the Far East.
However following a hearing on February 9, the RUSADA Disciplinary Anti-Doping Committee decided to lift the athlete’s provisional ban, thus allowing her to continue performing in China.
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The IOC and ITA have since begun legal proceedings to appeal the lifting of the suspension through the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland.
And if that is successful, Valieva will miss the women’s single skating competition which starts on Tuesday.
The ITA said: “The decision on the results of the ROC team in the Team Figure Skating event can be taken by the International Skating Union only after a final decision on the full merits of the case has been taken.
“The procedure, which is initiated currently, can only address the provisional suspension.
“Given that the legal process for this case is not finally concluded, the ITA will not provide any additional comments.”
Valieva, who is acknowledged as a “Protected Person” under the World Anti-Doping Code due to her age, also won European Championship gold in Estonia in January.
Yet today it was business as usual at the CTS Figure Skating training hall as she was in training alongside Russian teammates, performing her routine to the soundtrack of Torvill and Dean’s famous Bolero.
Trimetazidine, which has been banned since 2014, is medication used to treat chest pains and angina but it is not known if the teeanger had had a TUE medical exemption.
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