The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics ended more than 19 months ago, but a figure skating medal has yet to be awarded. The decision on the final ranking of the mixed team event will be taken these days in Lausanne, Switzerland, by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). In fact, hearings began on Tuesday regarding the doping case involving the Russian skater Kamila Valieva, then considered among the best in the world and who competed for Russia in the team event. The Russian athletes in Beijing were actually participating under the flag of the ROC (Russian Olympic Committee), using a formula already tested in Tokyo in 2021, after the country’s disqualification for widespread state doping.
The Russian skating team won the mixed team final, ahead of the United States, Japan and Canada. But on February 7, 2022, a few hours after the end of the competition in which Valieva had actively contributed to the victory of the Russian team, a Swedish laboratory in Stockholm communicated to the Olympic Committee the skater’s positivity in an anti-doping test taken on December 25, six weeks ago. first, during the Russian national championships. It later became known that the sample had been analyzed with a huge delay due to problems related to the pandemic. The medal award ceremony was first postponed and then never organized, the final result was not approved pending further developments. The then fifteen-year-old athlete was suspended the day after the news of the positivity, but then her appeal was accepted and the CAS allowed her to participate in the individual test although under the judgethat is, awaiting judgment.
Valieva had tested positive for trimetazidine, a drug that reduces oxygen consumption: her defense claimed that the test had been unwittingly contaminated by traces of cardiovascular drugs used by her grandfather. The CAS justified its emergency decision by referring to the lack of clear rules on the suspension of underage athletes for doping, and granting extenuating circumstances linked to the delay in examining the samples. After a few days in the singles competition in which she was widely favored, Valieva made a lot of mistakes, she fell twice and finished only in fourth place. Even in that case there would have been no award ceremony, as Valieva had competed under the judge: his fourth place however avoided further problems for the International Olympic Committee. There remained the problem of the team competition, which has remained so to this day.
The CAS must decide on the disqualification of the skater and on the case of doping in the strict sense. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has asked for a four-year ban, until December 2025. Valieva is now 17 years old and is no longer among the best Russian skaters, so the most awaited decision does not concern the future but rather the past and that Olympic competition. Based on the CAS ruling, the International Skating Federation (ISU) will have to remodulate the final ranking.
Vladimir Putin with Kamila Valieva ad aprile del 2022 (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, FILE)
The decision is also complex due to the format of that competition, introduced in 2014 and which includes two tests for four different specialties. Each awards points based on placement. Valieva took first place and ten points for each of the two events in which she competed, also becoming the first skater to perform a quadruple jump in an Olympics. According to legal experts, there are four possible scenarios: in the event of an acquittal or a light sentence, the ISU could still consider the contest valid, leaving all the points and therefore the gold medal to the Russian team. This hypothesis is considered probable, even in the event of Valieva’s full conviction.
In the past, in certain cases the international federation has in fact decided that a team should not be held responsible if a single athlete has violated the anti-doping rules, provided that the competition has not been distorted by that positivity and that the other members of the team can demonstrate of having no responsibility. Much depends on the court’s interpretation.
Kamila Valieva after her disappointing singles match (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
The second hypothesis is a disqualification of the Russian team, with the cancellation of its results: the United States would win gold, Japan silver, Canada bronze. The third option would be to remove Valieva’s points from the Russian team’s account, this would leave the Russians at least in third place. The fourth is to consider Valieva’s tests null, recalculate all the rankings of the individual tests as if he had not participated and redistribute the points. In this case the Russian team would only be fourth, behind Canada.
2023-09-28 13:01:51
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