Russian teen Valieva disqualified in Olympic doping case, Canada likely to be upgraded to bronze

Canada should be upgraded to bronze after Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva was disqualified from the 2022 Olympics on Monday, almost two years after her doping case caused turmoil at the Beijing Games.

The verdict from the Court of Arbitration for Sport means the Russians are set to be stripped of the gold medal in figure skating’s team event.

The United States finished second and is set to be named Olympic champion instead. Japan originally finished third and Canada placed fourth.

“Skate Canada applauds the decision made by the Court of Arbitration for Sport regarding Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva’s doping violation during the 2022 Winter Olympic Games,” the organization said in a statement Monday.

“This ruling underscores the significance of stringent anti-doping measures and the need for continuous vigilance in protecting the integrity of figure skating and all sports.”

Should the Canadians be elevated to third, it would mean a bronze medal for Roman Sadovsky, Madeline Schizas, Kristen Moore-Towers, Michael Marinaro, Vanessa James, Eric Radford, Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier.

The International Olympic Committee decided not to present any medals for the event in Beijing, where the 15-year-old Valieva was the star performer hours before her positive test for a banned heart medicine was revealed.

CAS said it upheld appeals led by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which asked the court to disqualify Valieva from the Olympics and ban her. A Russian sports tribunal had cleared her of any blame.

The CAS judges banned her for four years, through December 2025 — about seven weeks before the next Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

The IOC is responsible for reallocating medals and its executive board is next scheduled to meet in March.

Canada finished fourth in the overall standings with 26 medals, one behind Germany. Norway was first with 37 medals and the Russian Olympic Committee was second with 32.

A message left with the Canadian Olympic Committee was not immediately returned.

The likely new Olympic champions are Evan Bates, Karen Chen, Nathan Chen, Madison Chock, Zachary Donohue, Brandon Frazier, Madison Hubbell, Alexa Knierim and Vincent Zhou.

Valieva’s legal team said it is reviewing the CAS decision before deciding whether to appeal to the Swiss supreme court, lawyer Andrea Pinna said in a statement. Pinna, who is based in Paris, led the skater’s defence at the appeal hearings in September and November.

Appeals to the Swiss supreme court can be made on narrow procedural grounds, not the merits of the case.

Valieva’s lawyers had argued she was contaminated by traces of the trimetazidine medication they said her grandfather used.

“Having carefully considered all the evidence put before it,” the court said in a statement, “the CAS panel concluded that Ms. Valieva was not able to establish, on the balance of probabilities and on the basis of the evidence before the Panel, that she had not committed the [doping violation] intentionally.”

The judges decided that, according to Russian anti-doping rules, Valieva could not benefit from having been a minor at the time of the positive test.

There was “no basis under the rules to treat them any differently from an adult athlete,” said the court, which did not publish its detailed verdict pending a review of confidentiality issues.

The case provoked legal chaos at the Olympics because Valieva’s sample, taken six weeks earlier at the Russian national championships, was not notified by a laboratory in Sweden until hours after she competed in the team event on Feb. 7, 2022.

Intense scrutiny at 2022 Games

Valieva continued to skate at the Olympics after rulings by a Russian tribunal and a separate CAS panel did not hold her responsible as a minor.

The intense scrutiny on Valieva led to an error-filled skate in the individual event, where she had been favoured for gold but dropped to fourth place.

The drama continued when she left the ice. The reaction of her coach, Eteri Tutberidze, was fiercely criticized by skating experts and International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.

Bach said in Beijing one day later he had been “very, very disturbed” to watch the “tremendous coldness” of Valieva’s entourage.

WADA asked CAS to impose a four-year ban and to disqualify Valieva from the Olympics. The International Skating Union requested a two-year ban and disqualification.

Valieva, who turns 18 in April, has not competed internationally since the Beijing Olympics.

Four days after the closing ceremony, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and five days after that, the International Skating Union banned Russian skaters from its events. That ban is still in place.

Since the Olympics, Valieva has skated on an expanded Russian national competition circuit and in various TV events and ice shows. She is no longer the near-unbeatable skater she appeared to be before the Beijing Olympics and has twice been beaten at the Russian nationals by younger skaters from the same training group under Tutberidze.

Although scores at nationals are often inflated, Valieva’s 237.99 points — third at the Russia championships — would have been the best in the world by more than 10 points this season.

When an athlete 16 or younger tests positive for a banned substance, international rules require an investigation of their entourage. Both the Russian anti-doping body and WADA were expected to look into the case but neither has published any findings and there is no indication anyone else is facing anti-doping charges in the case.

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