The 15-year-old skater tested positive for trimetazidine, a banned substance, at the end of December.
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The decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport fell on Monday, February 14. Russian skater Kamila Valieva, who tested positive for a banned substance in late December, was allowed to compete in the individual event at the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday.
The sports court confirmed the lifting of the provisional suspension of the 15-year-old teenager by the Russian anti-doping agency (Rusada), considering that depriving her of a test before even having examined the merits of the case would cause her a prejudice “irreparable”. His young age (under 16) implies specific rules of evidence and reduced penalties.
Kamila Valieva had tested positive for trimetazidine at the end of December, a substance normally used to treat angina pectoris. The Russian has already won, Monday, February 7, the team competition whose medal ceremony had been postponed because of this fact of doping.
The young prodigy can therefore continue to defend her chances of individual Olympic gold, from her first season among seniors, even if nothing prevents her from being sanctioned within several months and seeing her results canceled there. included for the Olympics.
The Russian Olympic Committee hailed the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s decision as a “best news of the day”. On the contrary, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee said “disappointed with the message this decision sends”. “It is a collective responsibility of the entire Olympic community to protect the integrity of sport”completes the press release.
On the side of the CIO, mistrust still prevails. The committee announced in a statement Monday expect “a decision on the consequences of the positive doping control of the young Russian skater Kamila Valieva to award the medals of the events in which she will have participated in the Beijing Olympics”. It would be, according to the court, “inappropriate” to hold a ceremony before the merits of the case are decided.