Olympic body welcomes decision on Valieva doping case

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has welcomed the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decision on the doping case of teen-aged Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva and the fact that it has been clarified.

The athletes involved in the competition at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing could now "receive the medals they have been waiting for so long," an IOC spokesperson told dpa on Tuesday.

"The IOC is now in a position to award the medals according to the ranking list to be drawn up by the International Skating Union (ISU). We sympathize with the athletes who had to wait two years for the final results of their competition," the spokesman said.

Then 15, Valieva helped Russia win the team gold at the Beijing Games two years ago with a stunning performance.

But the medal ceremony never took place as it emerged right afterwards that she had tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine on December 25, 2021, at the Russian championships.

Valieva was later cleared by a Russian anti-doping tribunal but that ruling was contested by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the ruling skating body ISU who asked the CAS to impose a four-year ban and disqualification from all events after the positive test.

This was granted by the CAS after a long process, with Valieva banned from December 25, 2021, for four years.

Following Russia's disqualification, the United States move ahead of Japan and Canada into the gold medal position. The relevant National Olympic Committees will now be contacted to organize "a worthy Olympic medal ceremony", the IOC spokesperson said.

"This case and its circumstances are further evidence of the need to address the role that the athlete's environment plays in doping cases. Especially when the athletes are minors who are even more dependent one their entourage," the spokesperson added.

According to the USA Today newspaper, the US Figure Skating has already been informed by the IOC that their athletes will receive the gold medal.

The organization also wrote on X, formerly Twitter, late on Monday: "We are extremely proud of our 2022 Olympic champions – Nathan Chen, Vincent Zhou, Karen Chen, Alexa Knierim, Brandon Frazier, Madison Chock, Evan Bates, Madison Hubbell, Zachary Donohue – for their excellence on and off the ice."

Valieva has not competed internationally since the Beijing Games, with Russian skaters banned since the start of the country's invasion of Ukraine a few days after the closing ceremony in February 2022.

Her ban runs until December 2025, a few weeks before the next Winter Olympics in Milan/Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.