Kamila Valieva, a fifteen-year-old Russian ice-skater competing in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games has recently failed a mandatory drug test and the results came in days before her individual performance. The athlete was caught taking the performance-enhancing drug, trimetazidine, which is banned from the Olympics due to evidence of athletes using it for performance enhancement.
Valieva, the first female ice-skater to land a quadruple jump at an Olympics event, had a sample collected on December 25th, 2021, however, the result was only released on February 8th, 2022, the day after she helped her team to win gold, but before the medal ceremony.
The shocking results caused uproar amongst other athletes competing in this year’s Olympics and the case was sent to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to make a final ruling.
On Tuesday the 15th of February, 2022 the committee from the Court of Arbitration of Sport met and decided that Valieva would be allowed to compete in her individual event, despite failing the drug tests as she is considered a ‘protected individual’, as she is under sixteen. This decision by CAS caused upset across several other countries competing and individuals involved in the Olympics, such as US Olympic and Paralympic Committee chief Sarah Hirshland who stated, “This appears to be another chapter in the systematic and pervasive disregard for clean sport by Russia”.
Valieva competed on Thursday, February 17th in the free skate and was one of the final 25, however, unfortunately, the talented ice-skater fell twice during her final performance, costing her the gold and Valieva was noticeably upset whilst waiting for her results on the ice.
Kamila Valieva started with a two-point lead over her opponent Anna Shcherbakova after a strong run on Tuesday, however, in her free skate she received a score of 141.93, which saw her drop to fourth place in the final standings.
The investigation for this doping scandal is still open and no medals have currently been awarded and according to the International Olympic Committee, none will be awarded until the investigation is closed.