(Bloomberg) — The International Olympic Committee pushed back against a ruling that allowed Russian Olympic Committee figure skater Kamila Valieva to continue to compete at the Beijing Winter Olympics despite failing a drug test, saying it would not hold a medal ceremony for the women’s individual event if she finishes on the podium.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday declined to impose a temporary suspension on Valieva partly due to her status as a minor, after it came to light on Feb. 8 that the 15-year-old had tested positive for a banned heart drug from a sample taken before the Olympics. The Russian anti-doping agency had temporarily suspended Valieva after learning she had tested positive for trimetazidine, which can boost endurance, then reinstated her on Feb. 9.
READ: Russian Olympic Skater in Doping Case Cleared to Compete
The IOC, the International Skate Union and the World Anti-Doping Agency had all appealed to have Valieva’s suspension reinstated. The parties acknowledged the court’s decision to allow Valieva to keep competing, but the IOC and WADA voiced their disappointment toward the CAS judgment. WADA added it would further investigate Valieva’s support staff.
Valieva is viewed as a top contender for gold in the women’s individual event, which begins Tuesday. She was also part of the ROC team that won gold at last week’s team event, though the medal ceremony has yet to take place due to the investigation. The IOC said that in the interest of fairness, it would only allow medal ceremonies for both the team and the women’s individual event to take place after further investigation into Valieva.
“The management of the case after this positive A-sample has not yet been concluded. Only after due process has been followed can it be established whether Ms Valieva infringed the World Anti-Doping Code and would have to be sanctioned,” the IOC said in a statement.
Kamila Valieva training in Beijing on Sunday. She helped Russia win the figure skating team competition last week.Credit…Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York Times
The Russian figure skating star at the center of doping questions at the Beijing Olympics will be allowed to compete in the women’s singles event after a ruling by arbitrators on Monday.
The panel, in a statement, said it would be unfair and cause “irreparable harm” if she were barred from the competition, despite having tested positive for a banned substance in December. That revelation came last week, a day after she had helped lead Russia to a gold medal in the team event.
The skater, Kamila Valieva, 15, has become a face of the Games and is widely seen as the favorite to win the women’s event that begins on Tuesday. The ruling on Monday means she can take to the ice when the short program begins, though questions will surely hang over her performance and the Russian team.
In making the decision, the panel’s statement said, it “considered fundamental principles of fairness, proportionality, irreparable harm and the balance of interests” between Valieva and the organizations seeking to bar her from the Games. Also, it noted, Valieva did not test positive at the Beijing Games, but could face possible penalties when her case is examined after the Olympics.
The case was heard by a panel assigned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, considered the highest legal authority in global sports. Matthieu Reeb, the director general of the court, announced the ruling at a news conference on Monday, less than 30 hours before the women’s event was to begin, but walked off without taking any questions.
The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee quickly issued a statement expressing its disappointment in the ruling. Sarah Hirshland, the committee’s chief executive, said that clean athletes are being denied “the right to know they are competing on a level playing field.”
“We are disappointed by the messages this sends,” Sarah Hirshland, the chief executive of the committee. said in a statement, adding, “This appears to be another chapter in the systemic and pervasive disregard for clean sport by Russia.”
The panel on Monday, however, did not decide whether Valieva was guilty of knowingly using a banned drug. It only decided it was within the discretion of Russia’s antidoping agency to lift a brief suspension of her that it had imposed last week after learning she had tested positive weeks ago for a banned drug. That disclosure came the day after the team event.
In the ruling, the arbitrators rejected appeals by the International Olympic Committee, the World Anti-Doping Agency and skating’s global governing body to reinstate a provisional suspension that would have ruled Valieva out of the Olympics.
The court did not consider whether Valieva was at fault for testing positive for trimetazidine, a heart medication that could increase endurance. Her positive result came from a urine sample that was taken from her at the Russian national championships on Dec. 25 but was not confirmed for about six weeks. The panel that met on Saturday and Sunday in Beijing upheld the Russian antidoping agency’s decision to suspend Valieva for only one day last week before quickly reinstating her.
The Russian antidoping agency said it had received notice from a Stockholm lab of Valieva’s failed drug test only on Feb. 7, the same day that she led the Russians to a gold medal in the team event. The medals for that competition have not been awarded.
The International Olympic Committee, the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Skating Union had filed an appeal with the court last week, seeking to reinstate the suspension, which would most likely have prevented Valieva from competing in Beijing.
“This is a very complicated and controversial situation,” her coach, Eteri Tutberidze, told Russia’s state-run TV network Channel One on Saturday in her first public comments about the case. “There are many questions and very few answers.”
Despite those unknowns, Tutberidze quickly added, “I wanted to say that we are absolutely confident that Kamila is innocent and clean.”
The legal battle over Valieva’s future eligibility is likely to last for weeks, at least. The fate of the Olympic gold medal in the team event also hangs in the balance.
In last week’s free skate in the team competition, Valieva became the first woman to land a quadruple jump. Her performance led the Russians to win the team event, their best showing ever. The United States won the silver medal, and Japan won bronze.
