A Russian Figure Skater’s Doping Case Is Being Heard Today—And An American Gold Medal Depends On It

Topline

The Court of Arbitration for Sports on Tuesday started hearing the case of a Russian teenager who tested positive for a banned heart medication at the Beijing Olympics last year, the outcome of which could lead to another gold medal for the Americans if she’s found to be guilty of doping.

Russia’s Kamila Valieva competes in the women’s single skating short program of the figure skating … [+] team event during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

AFP via Getty Images

Key Facts

Kamila Valiyeva, who was 15 at the time of the Olympics, tested positive for the medication trimetazidine in December of 2021 but results were not shared with sports authorities until after her free skate in Beijing six weeks later, delaying the medal ceremony for figure skating.

She skated on the team representing Russia and won the gold medal, but if the court doesn’t side in her favor the team will be stripped of their win and the others who placed will be upgraded—the United States would be given the gold medal, Japan the silver and Canada the bronze.

Valiyeva’s lawyers did not speak to reporters when they arrived at the highest court in sports on Tuesday, NBC Sports reported, but have argued in the past that her positive test must have come from accidental contamination in her home—her grandfather claimed he took trimetazidine.

Arguments were first made in front of the World Anti-Doping Agency in January and February, NBC reported at the time, which did not accept that Valiyeva, a minor, bore “no fault or negligence” for her positive drug test and has asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport to ban Valiyeva from the sport for four years and disqualify her from the Olympics.

Valiyeva has not skated internationally since Beijing because of the International Skating Union’s ban on athletes from the country following its invasion of Ukraine.

The USA’s Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier compete in the pair skating free skating of the figure … [+] skating team event.

AFP via Getty Images

Big Number

3. That’s how many Olympic figure skating medals the Americans earned in Beijing. Nathan Chen won gold in men’s single skating and the Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue team won the bronze in ice dancing, in addition to the silver medal for team skating. The Russian Olympic Committee won six medals in ice dancing, pair skating, women’s single skating and the team event.

Tangent

Valiyeva, now 17 years old, made her international debut in the 2018-19 season. She won the gold medal at a Junior Grand Prix competition in France and has since won the Junior World Championships and European Championships. She last year received the Order of Friendship, a state decoration, from President Vladimir Putin.

Kamila Valieva of Team ROC skates at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

Getty Images

Key Background

Russia has a checkered history when it comes to doping and the Olympics. Russia has had more than 150 athletes caught doping at the Olympic games, according to the World Anti-Doping Agency, and 48 medals have been stripped from teams associated with the country. Several athletes were suspended from the Beijing Summer Olympics in 2008 for manipulating urine samples but it wasn’t until a state-sponsored doping scandal broke open at the 2014 Sochi Olympics that the extent of the issue was revealed. The former head of the Russian athletics federation and a top Russian coach were handed lifetime bans by the International Amateur Athletic Federation in 2016 and an investigation by the New York Times that same year released that year detailed a scheme that saw Russian intelligence switch urine samples for athletes. Russia was partially banned from participating in the 2016 Olympics and while athletes have been allowed to compete since, they’ve done so under the monikers ROC and OAR. Russia received a two-year ban from the World Anti-Doping Agency in 2019 for its state-sponsored doping program set to expire in 2022, but the agency said this spring that Russia is still “noncompliant.”

What To Watch For

How Russian athletes compete at the 2024 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee earlier this year said Russia and Belarus will not be invited to the 2024 Paris Summer games because of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, but athletes will still be allowed to compete under a neutral flag if their sports allow it.