Russian agency also appeals in Valieva Olympic doping case

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — The Russian anti-doping agency has filed an appeal in the case of Kamila Valieva, the Court of Arbitration for sport said Friday, but it has asked for the teenage figure skater to be punished with as little as a reprimand and keep her Olympic gold medal.

CAS confirmed registering three separate appeals — from the Russian agency known as RUSADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Skating Union. The appeals could now be combined into a single process to decide a case that overshadowed last year’s Beijing Olympics.

WADA previously said it was asking CAS to impose a four-year ban. The ISU has requested a punishment at its discretion.

“At this time, it is not possible to indicate a time frame for the issuance of the decision,” the court said.

The three parties that have made appeals should now have to cooperate in choosing one of the three judges in a typical CAS judging panel. The normal procedure would let Valieva’s legal team choose one judge and the court would appoint someone to chair the panel.

RUSADA, WADA and the ISU are challenging a Russian anti-doping tribunal’s decision last year that Valieva bore “no fault or negligence” for the positive test in December 2021 for the heart medication trimetazidine, which is banned in sports. The tribunal disqualified Valieva from the Russian national championships, where she gave the sample, but no other event.

Valieva’s positive test was reported only several weeks later during the Beijing Olympics, where she had already helped the Russians take gold in the team event.

Still only 15 years old, Valieva was favored to win the women’s individual event in Beijing but, after several days of intense media coverage and an appeal to CAS that let her continue competing, she placed fourth with an error-filled skate.

RUSADA acknowledged that Valieva has broken its anti-doping rules and suggested she now face “the appropriate consequences (which may include or be limited to a reprimand),” CAS said in a statement.

The Russian agency issued its own statement saying it had not given Valieva any special treatment and defending its application for the sanction to be merely a reprimand.

“RUSADA is convinced that there is a degree of fault for the athlete in the breach of the rules but that it is minimal and that a reasonable sanction could be issuing a reprimand,” the agency said.

No medal ceremony for the team event was held in Beijing. The United States team never received their silver medals and could eventually be upgraded to gold.