Olympics, doping, Valieva freed from Tas: she can compete but sub judice

The Russian skater Kamila Valieva will be able to compete in the women’s individual competition pending the resolution of her doping case that broke out immediately after the gold won last Monday in the Team Event. The Tas of Lausanne, with a council of three referees chaired by an Italian, Fabio Iudica, has in fact established that Valieva, 15, favored for another gold, must not be suspended as decided by the Russian anti-doping agency (Rusada) because depriving her of the competition without having yet examined her case of positivity would cause her an “irreparable” prejudice.

the case

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La Valieva tested positive for trimetazidine, a drug for heart ischemia in a December 25 test at the National Championships in St. Petersburg, but the Swedish laboratory in Stockholm that performed it only communicated the result a week ago, after the small phenomenon from Kazan had already dragged the Russian Olympic Committee (the national teams are still suspended until December 16) to success in the team competition and therefore without giving her the material time to defend herself, another reason why the suspension was considered unfair. Moreover, the sentence solves only the problem of participation in the race, in which she will go down on the ice on Tuesday at 14.52 (Russia has never won the women’s individual gold) but does not safeguard the medals, including the one already won, if Valieva were to be found guilty after the Games.