The Swiss Federal Court has rejected the appeal of figure skating star Kamila Valieva and confirmed a four-year doping ban against the Russian. As the US news agency AP reported, the now 19-year-old also has to pay the equivalent of around 7,500 euros in court costs as well as around 8,600 euros each to the World Anti-Doping Agency Wada and the International Ice Skating Union Isu.
Before the court, Valieva’s lawyers presented an AP article from September 2024 to claim that Wada committed procedural fraud to suppress evidence. The article is about experiments by an experienced scientist in 2022, carried out on behalf of the Russian anti-doping agency, which suggested that contamination was not impossible, but intentional ingestion of the banned substance was the most plausible explanation.
Five federal court judges said Valieva’s team’s arguments were speculative and highly questionable. The scientist’s report does not constitute conclusive evidence.
Tested positive in December 2021
Valieva’s case has been keeping sports lawyers busy since the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. After the team competition, the athlete’s positive doping test was revealed. She tested positive for the banned drug trimetazidine at the national championships in December 2021. The International Court of Arbitration for Sports (Cas) subsequently banned her retroactively for four years.
Since Valieva was only 15 years old at the time, she was considered a “protected person” under the World Anti-Doping Code whose identity should not have been revealed. The secrecy failed. Valieva’s legally enforced start in the Olympic women’s singles ended as a scandal with a tearful routine, the favorite only ended up in fourth place.
Despite the end of the ban, no participation in the Olympics
Valieva was allowed to resume training last week. However, it is no longer possible for her to take part in the Winter Olympics next February in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo. The last opportunity for Russian and Belarusian athletes to qualify under a neutral flag was at a qualifying event in Beijing in September.