(Reuters) – Kamila Valieva, a banned Russian figure skater, has attributed her positive doping test to consuming a strawberry dessert made by her grandfather on a chopping board he used to crush his medication pills, as stated by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Wednesday. CAS released their Arbitral Award, explaining the reasons behind the four-year doping ban imposed on Valieva in January.
The highest court in sport found Valieva guilty of violating anti-doping rules after Trimetazidine (TMZ) was discovered in a sample collected from her during the Russian National Championships in December 2021.
CAS revealed that Valieva claimed that the banned substance entered her system through a dessert prepared by her grandfather on a board he used to crush TMZ-containing pills.
CAS quoted “The CAS Panel determined that this explanation was not corroborated by any concrete evidence and that the Athlete was not able to establish that she had not committed the ADRV intentionally.”
“From this basis, and according to the relevant rules, the status of “Protected Person” that the Athlete could enjoy before the CAS ad hoc Division at the time of the Olympic Winter Games 2022, because of her young age and on the basis of the limited evidence which was available at the very beginning of the case, was no longer applicable in her situation.”
CAS further stated that Valieva failed to prove that she did not commit the ADRV intentionally, and as the “No Significant Fault or Negligence” criterion was not met, there was no basis to treat her any differently from an adult athlete.
All of Valieva’s competitive results following the offense were invalidated, including the gold medal she helped the Russian Olympic Committee win in the team event at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games. Russia has announced it will contest the decision to revoke the medal.
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes; Editing by Toby Davis)
