The RUSADA Disciplinary Committee found Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva not guilty of an anti-doping rule violation, the World Anti-Doping Agency said in a statement. At the same time, it is noted that the results of the figure skater, shown by her on the day of taking the doping test – December 25, 2021, were cancelled. Then Valieva won the Russian Championship in St. Petersburg.
“The Russian Anti-Doping Agency has informed the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) that the RUSADA disciplinary tribunal has ruled in the case of figure skater Kamila Valieva. The Tribunal found that although the athlete committed an anti-doping rule violation, she bears "no fault" for it. Thus, the court did not impose any sanctions, with the exception of the disqualification of her results on the date of sampling (December 25, 2021),” the text of the statement reads.
Now Alexandra Trusova has officially become the champion of Russia in 2022. The figure skater has never won gold in the finals of major competitions before in her adult career: she became the bronze medalist of the 2020 Grand Prix Final, the bronze medalist at the 2021 World Championships, the silver medalist of the Russian Championship 2022, the bronze medalist of the European Championship 2022, each time yielding (including) to sportswomen from their group – Anna Shcherbakova, Alena Kostornaya or Kamila Valieva. At the same time, Trusova is included in the Guinness Book of Records as the first woman in history to perform a quadruple sheepskin coat, lutz and flip at official competitions. After Alexandra Trusova again failed to take first place at the Olympic Games, she could not contain her emotions.
In February, it became known that Valieva's doping test, taken on December 25 at the Russian Championship in St. Petersburg, tested positive for the banned drug trimetazidine. Information about this was received on February 7 from the laboratory in Stockholm, where the doping sample was sent. The next day, Valieva was temporarily suspended from participating in the Olympic Games. However, on February 9, the disciplinary committee of the Russian anti-doping agency RUSADA allowed the skater to continue participating in the competition.
On February 14, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) allowed Valiyeva to qualify for the individual Olympics tournament, given her status as a "protected person", as she is under 16 years old. It does not allow suspension from competition. The court considered that the non-admission of Valieva to the Olympics "would cause her irreparable harm." CAS also dismissed complaints from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Skating Union (ISU) that demanded that Valieva be suspended from competition because of the banned drug trimetazidine found in her doping test.
After that, the IOC executive committee decided not to hold the awards ceremony for the winners of the team figure skaters tournament at the Beijing Olympics. Thus, for the duration of the proceedings, due to the doping scandal, not only athletes from Russia, but also from the USA and Japan, who took 2nd and 3rd places in team competitions, will lose their medals. The awards ceremony for figure skaters in the individual tournament will also be canceled if Kamila Valieva enters the top three.
