Russian figure skater doping scandal to head to Court of Arbitration for Sport

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced it is lodging “an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS)” regarding the Russian figure skater at the center of a doping scandal at the Beijing Olympics. The appeal is being filed in conjunction with the International Testing Agency on behalf of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

According to a WADA news release published Friday, the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) provisionally suspended Kamila Valieva on Tuesday. This came after a WADA-accredited laboratory reported Monday that a sample taken from Valieva in December tested positive for trimetazidine. On Wednesday, RUSADA lifted Valieva’s suspension.

“Under the terms of the World Anti-Doping Code, WADA has a right to appeal the decision… and intends to do so on the grounds that the Code has not been correctly applied in this case,” WADA said in the release. On Friday, a spokesperson for the IOC added it has a “100% policy against doping” and it “will pursue all doping cases to the end.”

“These cases need to be prosecuted properly, taken care of properly and due process needs to be gone through,” Mark Adams said. “But clearly in this specific case, it is an active case… and it would be wrong of anyone to make any comment on this… particularly because we are talking about a case of a minor, a protected person.”

As a 15-year-old, Valieva has protections in the World Anti-Doping Code. Under the guidelines, she could ultimately receive a simple reprimand. It’s unclear if the results of the arbitration court hearing over the doping scandal will affect the gold medals the Russian figure skating team won earlier this week. The Russian Olympic Committee won the gold the same day the lab reported Valieva’s positive test.

“We have a tremendous respect for WADA as well as for the IOC,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. “Let’s not rush anything; wait until the investigation is over and the IOC takes a decision and makes it public. In the meantime, all of us support Kamila Valieva and wish her success.”