Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva's Olympic doping case will resume for two more days in November
GENEVA (AP) — The Olympic doping case involving teenage Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva will resume for two more days in November, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said Thursday.
The highest court in sports said its panel of three judges adjourned the appeal after the third day of a closed-door hearing and will return on Nov. 9-10.
"(The judges) ordered the production of further documentation and, in order to allow the parties to consider and address such documentation, allowed two further days for the hearing,” CAS said in a statement.
Now 17 years old, Valieva was only 15 when her positive doping test for a banned heart medication was revealed at the Beijing Olympics in February 2022.
With the unforeseen delay, a verdict is not expected until next year.
The United States finished second behind the Russians in the team event in Beijing and never got their medals. The nine American skaters could be upgraded to become Olympic champions if Valieva is held responsible for her positive test.
Valieva had traces of trimetazidine in a sample taken at the Russian championships in St. Petersburg where she won in December 2021. The test result, however, was delayed at the laboratory in Stockholm, Sweden, and not known until she started competing in Beijing.
She was allowed by a previous CAS panel to compete in the individual women’s event at the Olympics and finished fourth with a mistake-filled free program under intense scrutiny and pressure.
Valieva's defense has been that her positive test was caused by accidental contamination — maybe from a glass or plate — by tablets her grandfather claimed he took.
At the first CAS hearing in Beijing, lawyers for the World Anti-Doping Agency argued there was no document proving her grandfather had been prescribed trimetazidine medication.
A Russian anti-doping tribunal’s ruling announced in January said Valieva, as an underage minor, was not at fault and should not be disqualified from the Olympics.
The appeal hearing at CAS this week was brought by WADA and the International Skating Union challenging that Russian ruling.
WADA has asked the judges to ban Valieva for four years until December 2025 and disqualify her from the Olympics.
“Due to the confidential nature of the proceedings, WADA is not permitted to comment further on the adjournment,” the Montreal-based agency said in a statement Thursday. “However, as it has done at all stages, it will continue to push for a resolution of these proceedings as quickly as possible.”
The ISU wants a ban of at least two years and disqualification. The Russian anti-doping agency also joined the appeal and suggested a reprimand would do.
Valieva’s legal team previously submitted to the court the argument that CAS has no jurisdiction in the case, and alternatively that she was not at fault so a reprimand is enough.
Valieva has not skated internationally since Beijing because of an ISU ban on Russians following the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
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