Twenty-four hours from the women’s figure skating event, the young Russian Kamila Valieva, huge favorite for Olympic gold but tested positive for a prohibited substance, awaits Monday the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) which will be announced in the afternoon in Beijing.
The women’s short program is scheduled from 6:00 p.m. local on Tuesday (11:00 a.m. in France) 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 (2:52 p.m. French).
But his fate is in the hands of the CAS ad hoc chamber panel. Because the Russian teenager, fifteen years old and a pure product of the factory of champions of the severe Eteri Tutberidze in Moscow, was caught up in an embarrassing doping affair in the middle of the Beijing Games.
Seized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in particular, the CAS heard the parties for six hours until early Monday morning by videoconference and must render its decision around 2:00 p.m. local (07:00 French). If the three CAS arbitrators agree with the IOC, the 2022 Olympics will be over for Valieva, and her dreams of individual Olympic gold in Beijing.
Present at all training
If they reject the call, however, the young prodigy, crowned European champion a month ago and so far undefeated in her first winter as seniors, has only some 24 hours to refocus on competition – most important of his fledgling career.
“You have to remember that there is a human dimension in (this case) with a 15 year old, underlined Sunday Christophe Dubi, the executive director of the Olympic Games. After a test on December 25 at the Russian Championships in Saint Petersburg by the Russian anti-doping agency (Rusada), Valieva’s positive result was not known until Tuesday, the day after her shared victory with the Russians in the team event, whose medal ceremony has still not taken place.
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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, Valieva obtained the lifting of this sanction the next day.
This led the IOC, but also WADA and the International Skating Federation to appeal. Since the formalization of her positive control on Friday, Valieva continues to train conscientiously day after day, sometimes on the Olympic ice, sometimes on the training rink.
Ecole Tutberidze
With the exception of one “Hello” sound launched Sunday morning, accompanied by members of the Russian management, she remained silent at each of her crossings of the mixed zone. She even hid her face behind her sweatshirt on Friday.
“We want this matter to be resolved as quickly as possible. (…) but as in any justice system, there is a procedure to follow., said IOC spokesman Mark Adams on Sunday during the Olympic body’s daily press briefing in Beijing. The Valieva affair started at the beginning of last week, when the IOC announced that the medal ceremony for the team competition, won on Monday by Russia, which is competing under a neutral flag, 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 were suspended, Russian skating and the Tutberidze school would not be short of arguments, since its main competitors are also its training partners, precisely Anna Shcherbakova, reigning world champion, and Alexandra Trusova, medalist World and European, both 17 years old.
The Valieva affair could also put Russia, with a past already well tainted in terms of doping with the scandal of the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, back in turmoil.
