Russian skater Valieva allowed to compete at Winter Olympics

ISTANBUL

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Monday cleared Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva to compete at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

The sport's top court announced its decision on an appeal by the International Olympic Committee, the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Skating Union against Russian Anti-Doping Agency's (Rusada) lifting the 15-year-old's provisional suspension after she tested positive for a banned substance.

The ruling came a day ahead of Valieva's next event – the women's singles.

According to the CAS, Valieva is considered a "protected person" under the World Anti-Doping Code – in other words, a minor.

The court said that since the teenager did not test positive during the Winter Olympics, preventing her from competing would cause her "irreparable harm."

It said that "serious issues of untimely notification of the results" of the failed test, which came nearly six weeks after she gave the sample, also led to the decision as "such late notification was not her fault."

The International Testing Agency had said on Feb. 11 that Valieva tested positive for trimetazidine, a metabolic agent that helps with the treatment of angina and vertigo, from a sample collected during the Russian Figure Skating Championships in St. Petersburg on Dec. 25, 2021.

The positive test was confirmed by an internationally-accredited anti-doping laboratory in Stockholm on Feb. 8.

The finding led Rusada to provisionally suspend the athlete. The ban, however, was lifted following an appeal by Valieva.

Last week, Valieva became the first woman to produce a quadruple jump in an Olympic competition in the team event.