Russia will appeal the decision that took away Olympic gold from Valieva for doping

The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) will appeal the decision to strip its figure skating team of a gold medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to punishment for doping against Russian Kamila Valieva.

“OCR will definitely contact CAS [Tribunal Arbitral do Desporto] against the decision of the International Skating Federation (ISU) to redistribute the final classification of the team figure skating tournament,” the organization’s website says.

Despite Russia’s Kamila Valieva’s doping punishment, Team USA became Olympic figure skating champions at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, while Japan was promoted to silver and Russia dropped from first place to bronze.

The decision to change the classification follows a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which on Monday imposed a four-year ban on a figure skater who tested positive for doping in Beijing when she was just 15 years old. .

On Tuesday, the ISU published a new ranking, depriving the skater of a maximum of 10 points in each of the two competitions, but not adding a single point to teams below Russia.

That puts the Russians one point ahead of Canada, the fourth-place team, with 53 points, while Russia, with a deduction of 20, moved up from 74 to 54, allowing it to remain on the podium, but third, and no. medal for Valieva.

A decision that Canada can still challenge at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS), which on Monday handed the skater a four-year ban, retroactive to December 2021, following a famous positive test during the Beijing 2022 Games.

The teenager did not dispute the positive result of the test carried out on December 25, 2021 – trimetazidine was found – a substance that improves blood circulation, banned since 2014 by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), – claims that when she was 15 years old, she became a victim of “infection through cutlery,” which she shared with her grandfather, who took her to practice every day and who has been medicated with the substance since she received an artificial heart.

TAC, which at the time did not have conclusive evidence and allowed her to compete in the Games, now understands that the athlete “failed to prove by conclusive evidence that she did not dope ‘intentionally’.”

The rationale of the athlete and those responsible for her selection was contradicted by the fact that traces of other substances used to improve performance were also found, in this case l-carnitine and hypoxene.