Valieva case keeps low confidence in Russian anti-doping, says Wada

The head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said on Tuesday that confidence in Russia’s anti-doping system remains low, citing its handling of Olympic figure skater Kamila Valieva’s doping case. Valieva tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine at the Russian national championships in December 2021 when she was 15 years old. The test result, however, was only released on February 8, 2022, the day after she helped her team win the gold medal at the Beijing Winter Olympics. Last month, Wada appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after a Russian investigation found it not guilty of any doping offences. Wada is seeking a four-year suspension and disqualification of all Valieva results as of the date of sample collection. Wada chairman Witold Banka said the Russian decision in the case “certainly does not build confidence”. “I have to say that confidence in the independence of the anti-doping system remains very low,” Banka told attendees at WADA’s annual symposium. “The way the ROC figure skater case [Comitê Olímpico Russo] Kamila Valieva was treated was not encouraging. These unnecessary delays in the case dovetail with that mistrust.” Valieva’s case has cast a shadow over the Russians’ participation in last year’s Beijing Winter Olympics, as they already faced scrutiny over separate doping sanctions that caused them to compete. without its flag and national anthem * Reproduction of this content is prohibited.

Agência Brasil