Russian figure skater Valieva banned for doping, ROC loses Olympic gold

Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva has received a four-year doping suspension, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said on Monday, effectively stripping the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) of its gold medal in the team event from the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

“Kamila Valieva is found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation and sanctioned with a four-year period of ineligibility commencing on 25 December 2021,” the Lausanne-based court said in a statement.

The court added that all competitive results achieved since that date are voided, including the gold medal she helped ROC to win in the team event at the 2022 Games.

The CAS panel determined there had been no scope for Valieva, who was 15 at the time of the offence, to be treated with more leniency that an adult found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation.

Valieva tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine, which prevents angina, at the Russian national championships in December 2021. Her team has said the positive test could have been due to a mix-up with her grandfather’s heart medication.

The result of the positive doping test was only made known a day after she helped the ROC win gold in the team event at the Beijing Winter Olympics in February 2022.

Valieva, who became the first woman to land a quadruple jump at the Olympics during the team event, had been favourite to win the singles gold but missed out on an individual medal after dropping to fourth place with an error-laden free skate.

During the Beijing Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided no medals for the team figure skating event would be presented until Valieva’s case had been resolved.

The United States took silver behind the Russians, with Japan getting the bronze and Canada placing fourth.

American figure skaters have repeatedly expressed their frustration over the delay in receiving the team medals.