The Valieva affair, named after the young Russian skater who tested positive for a banned substance but was not sanctioned by the Russian anti-doping agency, which was one of the significant episodes of the last Winter Olympics in Beijing, has experienced a new twist. Tuesday. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has indeed announced that it has seized the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to demand a four-year suspension and the cancellation of all the results of the 16-year-old teenager, “from the date of sample collection, December 25, 2021”.
On the merits, WADA disputes the analysis of the disciplinary tribunal of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada), which had estimated in January that the young girl had committed “no fault or negligence”, therefore confining itself to canceling her results of December 25, 2021, i.e. her title of Russian champion won in Saint Petersburg, without further sanction.
The positive control of Kamila Valieva, whose analysis had been delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic, had been revealed during the Beijing Olympics in February 2022, triggering a huge scandal when the young prodigy had already won gold in the team event and came out as the big favorite in the individual event.
Trimetazidine Positive Control
Authorized to continue her Games while waiting for the case to be decided on the merits, Valieva had dominated the short program in a heavy climate, before cracking under the pressure in the free program to finish at the foot of the podium, in tears.
The 2022 European champion tested positive for trimetazidine: found in a tiny concentration in her body, this molecule is prescribed to relieve angina pectoris and banned by WADA since 2014, because it would promote blood circulation.
From the start of the case, her defense mentioned a possible “contamination via the cutlery” shared by the Russian teenager and her grandfather, who drove her to training every day and is treated with trimetazidine, after the installation of an artificial heart.