The doping case of teenage Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva that stunned the 2022 Beijing Olympics returns to the best court docket in sports activities on Tuesday.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport starts a listening to set for a minimum of 3 days with Valieva, now elderly 17, anticipated to testify through video link from Russia in a case that used to be slow-walked in her house nation and may just now ship a verdict through the top of the yr.
Awaiting the end result are 9 American skaters who may just develop into Olympic champions within the staff tournament after completing 2nd in Beijing in the back of the Russians and their famous person performer Valieva.
The heart of Valieva’s protection has been that her certain take a look at for a center medicine banned in sports activities used to be brought about through unintentional contamination – perhaps from a pitcher or plate – through drugs her grandfather claimed he took.
Valieva and her criminal staff “intend to conduct further investigation and present the results” at long term hearings within the case, the primary Russian anti-doping tribunal to pass judgement on the case stated in February ultimate yr.
The key long term listening to is now about to start out – greater than 19 months after a primary CAS panel of judges let Valieva proceed skating in Beijing in spite of a failed doping take a look at on her document.
This enchantment listening to used to be introduced through the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Skating Union. They have challenged a Russian ruling belatedly introduced in January that Valieva, as an underage minor on the time, used to be now not at fault and will have to stay her Olympic effects.
WADA has requested the 3 judges to prohibit Valieva for 4 years and disqualify her from the Olympics.
“We want a just outcome of the case, based on the facts,” WADA spokesman James Fitzgerald stated, including the Montreal-based company will “continue to push for this matter to be concluded without further undue delay.”
The ISU seeks 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 will argue that CAS has no jurisdiction, the court has said, and alternatively that she was not at fault so a reprimand is enough.
The United States figure skating team could be upgraded to gold in an event where no medal ceremony ever was held.
On the same day, Feb. 7, 2022, that Valieva’s free skate in Beijing helped seal the Olympic team title, a laboratory in Sweden notified her positive test from a sample given six weeks earlier at the Russian national championships. The lab later cited staffing issues during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The medal ceremony was postponed and a frenetic week of legal hearings in Moscow and Beijing led to the first CAS panel letting her enter the women’s individual event as the gold-medal favorite. The three judges then, who are not involved this week, ruled Valieva faced serious harm in her career by the anti-doping system’s “failure to function effectively.”
Amid the intense and stressful attention on her, Valieva produced a mistake-filled free skate and finished fourth.
The reaction rinkside by Valieva’s storied coach, Eteri Tutberidze – sternly criticizing her 15-year-old protégé’s errors — fueled further controversy.
International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach spoke in Beijing of “a tremendous coldness, it was chilling to see this.” He also rebuked a Russian journalist who suggested the IOC was partly responsible for bullying a child.
Bach replied “the ones who have administered this drug in her body, these are the ones who are guilty.”
Tutberidze, who also coached the individual gold and silver medalists in Beijing, should herself be investigated because anti-doping rules require it of the entourage when a minor is implicated in doping. That, however, should be in Russia where this year she got an honor from the Kremlin.
Valieva has not skated internationally since Beijing because of an ISU ban on Russians during the country’s war on Ukraine.
First, three CAS judges from Australia, the U.S. and France – picked respectively by the court, WADA and Valieva’s lawyers – will preside over a momentous Olympic case.
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
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