Fred's, (Used to be Barb's), Board

The Russian Anti-Doping Agency's (RUSADA's) disciplinary tribunal rendered a decision in the case of Russian Figure Skater, Kamila Valieva, finding that although the athlete had committed an Anti-Doping Rule Violation, she bore “no fault or negligence” for it. As such, the tribunal imposed no sanction except for the disqualification of her results at the Russian Figure Skating Championship in Saint-Petersburg in December 2021.

The International Skating Union (ISU) received a copy of the reasoned decision in Russian and English translation on January 26, 2023 and a full copy of the case file on February 2, 2023. The ISU conducted a full review of the RUSADA decision and case file has decided to lodge an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The ISU is of the opinion that all young athletes must be protected against doping. Such protection cannot happen by exempting young athletes from sanctions.

Within the appeal, the ISU is seeking a period of ineligibility at CAS’s own discretion, starting from 25 December 2021 and disqualification of all results achieved during this period including forfeiture of any medals, points and prizes. Additionally, CAS is to decide the consequences of the Anti-Doping Rule Violation committed by Kamila Valieva and determine the final results of the Figure Skating Team Event at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

For the best interests of all Skaters and everyone involved, the ISU will continue to push for this matter to proceed without further undue delay.

Given the case is now pending before CAS, the ISU can make no further comment at this time.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) is set to hear the appeals from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), International Skating Union (ISU) and Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva in September.

The CAS hearing with all concerned parties is scheduled to be held from September 26 to 29 at its headquarters in Lausanne.

The panel in charge of the case said it may hear those unable to appear in person through videoconference.

The CAS said the hearing will not be open to public and announced it is unable to tell when the final decision will be announced.

"The CAS Panel’s decision will be final and binding, with the exception of the parties’ right to file an appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal within 30 days on limited procedural grounds," a CAS statement read.

In January, a RUSADA Disciplinary Committee ruled that Valieva testing positive for trimetazidine was through no "no fault or negligence" of hers and disqualified the results at the Russian Championships on December 25 2021, the date of sample collection.

However, WADA, RUSADA and the ISU have appealed seeking further sanctions.

WADA wants a four-year ban for Valieva, including disqualification of her results at Beijing 2022.

This would deny the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) team figure skating gold at the Winter Olympics.

"WADA seeks a ruling from CAS setting aside the Challenged Decision and finding the Athlete to have committed an ADRV under art. 4.1 and/or 4.2 of the RUSADA ADR, and sanctioned with a period of ineligibility of four years, as well as the disqualification of all competitive results obtained by the Athlete from and including 25 December 2021.

"In accordance with the Code of Sports-related Arbitration (the CAS Code), the arbitration rules governing CAS procedures, the three appeals were consolidated and a common timetable was established for the filing of the parties’ written submissions.

"The exchange of written submissions is still ongoing, following the extensions of time fixed with the mutual agreement of the parties, but will be concluded on time prior to the CAS hearing."

In Beijing, Valieva was only 15 and helped the neutral Russian team to gold with flawless execution.

She was the favourite for the singles title but insidethegames then exclusively revealed that she was at the centre of a doping scandal.

The medals were not awarded for the team event and Valieva displayed an error-strewn performance in the free skate.

Second-placed United States, third-placed Japan and fourth-placed Canada are all in line for upgrades depending on the CAS decision.

Skaters from all three countries have expressed frustration due to the delays in medal ceremony.

Nine empty medal boxes from the Beijing 2022 Figure Skating Team Event are on display at the USOP Museum. This event's medal ceremony was postponed and over a year later, these athletes have not been awarded their medals.

happyheini wrote: ↑Tue Jul 18, 2023 3:58 pm It is such a shame.

fred wrote: ↑Thu Jul 27, 2023 9:18 am When the politicians and secret service agencies get involved with sports medals, it's difficult to sort out what is going on. Not impossible, but difficult, I suppose.