Kamila Valieva's doping ban upheld; U.S. expected to receive Russian's Olympic gold

Jan. 29 (UPI) -- Judges upheld figure skater Kamila Valieva's four-year ban for doping, the Court of Arbitration for Sport announced Monday. Russia will lose a gold medal from Beijing 2022 as a result.

Valieva was one of six Russians who won gold in the team event at the 2022 Winter Games. Team USA, which won silver, is expected to receive the gold. With Russian disqualified, Japan and Canada could be in line to receive silver and bronze medals, respectively.

Valieva's suspension started Dec. 25, 2021. All of her competitive results since that time were nullified, as she must forfeit titles, awards, medals, profits, prizes and appearance money.

The International Olympic Committee, which is responsible for reallocating medals, is scheduled to meet in March to make a determination about the medals.

Jason Brown, Alysa Liu, Karen Chen, Nathan Chen, Vincent Zhou and Mariah Bell were members of the silver-medal-winning American team in Beijing.

"The Court of Arbitration for Sport panel's decision is final and binding, with the exception of the parties' right to file an appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal within 30 days on limited grounds," a statement said.

Valieva, 17, was one of the most polarizing figures at the 2022 Winter Games. The gold medal favorite, who was 15 at the time, tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine, a heart medication, before the Olympics.

News broke of the positive test during Beijing 2022.

The Russian Anti-Doping Agency suspended Valieva the day after the Jan. 7. 2022, team figure skating event. It reversed that decision a day later, upon appeal from the figure skater. The International Olympic Committee decided not to hold a medal ceremony for the team event amid the controversy.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport cleared the Russian for participation a day before the start of women's singles figure skating event.

Court of Arbitration officials rejected appeals from the International Olympic Committee, the International Skating Union and the World Anti-Doping Agency when making that decision, which was praised by the Russian Olympic Committee.

Valieva hit the ice four times and failed to win a medal in the singles competition. She later appeared to be harshly criticized by a Russian coach for her struggles during the routine.

The World Anti-Doping Agency announced in November 2022 that it referred the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and was seeking for a four-year ban for Valieva, as Russian Anti-Doping Agency officials conducted a prolonged probe into the matter.

The Russian Anti-Doping Agency ruled in January 2023 that Valieva "bore no fault" during the 2022 Winter Games. The tribunal did not impose any sanctions on the skater, outside of disqualification from a Dec. 25, 2021, event held the day her failed test sample was collected.

"Today's decision in the Valieva case has been a long time coming," United States Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart said in a statement Monday.

"While any sense of true justice has been denied by the unbelievable and unnecessary delay in this case, we are incredibly pleased for clean athletes that this sad saga has finally come to an end and hope they can find joy and satisfaction in the fact that their long wait for justice is over.

"At the same time, our hearts hurt for yet another Russian athlete who the system has failed."

The next Winter Games will be held Feb. 6 to 22 of 2026 in Mlian and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. Valieva's ban is to expire about seven weeks before the competition. She has not competed in international competition since Beijing 2022.