Russian skater Kamila Valieva cleared to continue at Olympics

Russian teen figure skater Kamila Valieva has been cleared by the Court of Arbitration for Sport to competed in the Beijing Olympics despite failing a doping test.

Russia's Kamila Valieva trains on Sunday for the figure skating event at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games. Picture: AFP

Russian teen figure skater Kamila Valieva has been cleared to compete in the women’s singles skating competiton at the Beijing Olympic

In a highly controversial decision – Valieva, who tested positive for a banned heart medication trimetazidine on Christmas Day – has been backed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in a verdict that raises more questions than answers.

CAS has supported the Russian Anti-Doping Agency’s reversal of a drugs ban imposed on 15-year-old Valieva for her positive test because it took more than six weeks to tell her she had tested positive.

The CAS said one of the factors was Valieva’s under-age status, as well as the fact that it took a long time for the laboratory to notify the athlete of the positive test. CAS said this delay was not the fault of the athlete but it “infringed upon the athletes’ ability to establish certain legal requirements for her benefit”.

The CAS adjudicators, Fabio Iudica of Italy, Jeffrey Benz, of the US and Vesna Bergant Rakočeviċ, of Slovenia, ruled that “preventing the athlete from competing at the Olympic Games would cause her irreparable harm in these circumstances”.

CAS secretary general Matthieu Reeb announced the decision, saying: “The CAS Ad hoc Division was requested to determine the narrow issue as to whether a provisional suspension should be imposed on the athlete.It was not requested to rule on the merits of this case, nor to examine the legal consequences relating to the results of the team event in figure skating, as such issues will be examined in other proceedings.”

Court of Arbitration for Sport Director General, Matthieu Reeb announce the court's ruling on 15-year-old Russian skater Kamila Valieva. Picture: AFP

This decision allowing an athlete with a positive drugs test to compete at the Olympic Games, deviates from most doping decisions where the athlete is usually deemed responsible.

In the past Olympic bosses stripped Romanian teenage gymnast Andreea Raducan of a gold medal at the Sydney Olympics after she was given two pills for a cold by the team doctor; Usain Bolt lost a gold medal when a team mate in the 4x100m relay at the Beijing Olympics tested positive.

The court decision leaves gaping questions. Have the Russians committed a doping offence, and if so should they be stripped of the figure skating team gold medal that Valieva contributed to early in the Games? And how can Olympic bosses allow a person who has tested positive for drugs be allowed to undermine the credibility of the Olympic competition.

The answers to those are still uncertain, leaving the International Olympic Committee unable still to make a decision about the medal allocation for that event.

IOC spokesman Mark Adams said Valieva joining the competition, and the allocation of the skating team medals, were two separate issues. He said the IOC had wanted both to be considered in its entirety but the other parties wouldn’t agree.

“That will not be probably sorted out during these Games and it’s something that’s regrettable but we have to follow the process of CAS and the legal process,” Adams said.

Yet this legal acquiesce to Russia’s wishes to draw out the process has underscored both the authority of the CAS, and the IOC’s control of its own competition.

CAS, whose president is Australian John Coates, sets up adhoc courts at the Games to make quick decisions, often within hours.

Yet on this high-profile case, it is bound up in its own legalistic rules and the decision about Russia has been kicked into the long grass until well after the Games’ closing ceremony.

IOC president Thomas Bach should be throwing Russia out of the Games for having one of its adolescent competitors test positive to a drug that eases angina but also boosts endurance.

It echoes the evil East German doping program that targeted junior athletes with blue steroid pills and there is still open suspicion lingering about why Russia is allowed to take part in international competitions.

At their home Olympics in Sochi in 2014 they ripped apart the Games’ integrity with a doping scheme so sophisticated that secret police drilled mouseholes in laboratory walls to exchange dirty Russian samples for clean ones.

In Moscow huge billboards are posted on buildings in support of Valieva.

Russia's Kamila Valieva in Beijing over the weekend. Picture: AFP

Adams described the CAS decision as a “dilemma” and there are indeed only unpalatable alternatives if the Olympic Movement seeks to appease Russia. Hiding behind the CAS process, and allowing a central tenet of the Olympic Games – the medal presentation and allocation of medals – to be drawn out and manipulated this way is a disgrace.

The IOC only contested the decision made by the Russian anti-doping agency (RUSADA) to allow Valieva to compete and did not file any papers against Valieva nor the Russian Olympic Committee.

It was the World Anti Doping Agency that challenged both RUSADA and Valieva and it was the International Skating Union that added the Russian Olympic Committee to the case file.

Adams said: “We will follow the decision, that’s our job. We have to follow the ruling of CAS and will follow it to the letter, sometimes you like decisions sometimes you don’t like the decisions.”

Adams said the IOC had divorced itself from the testing and sanctioning processes at the Games “because we don’t what the appearance of conflict of interest”.

But in attempting to be the ultimate non-political diplomatic player, the IOC has lost control of its own property: the Olympic Games.

Adams obfuscated, saying this was “an incredibly complicated case” when it is a pure doping question.

Back in 2014 China’s now disgraced swimmer Sun Yang served a secret three-month doping sentence for testing positive to the same heart drug.

Adams said the IOC would “stay in our lane and stick to the functions we are supposed to carry out”.

Meanwhile the World Anti Doping Agency has opened an investigation into Valieva’s support staff, including her coach Eteri Tutberidze, who revels in her nickname Cruella de Vil.

Not one of Tutberidze’s skaters has performed at more than one Olympics with her harsh training methods contributing to stress fractures, other injuries and burn out.