Honorary Vice President of the International Skating Union (ISU) Alexander Lakernik shared his expectations regarding the Court of Arbitration for Sport hearings on the doping case of Kamila Valieva, expressing confidence that the Russian athlete did nothing intentionally.
The closed CAS hearings in the Valieva case, with the participation of representatives of all parties, are scheduled for September 26 to 29, 2023. At the 2022 Beijing Olympics, the figure skater helped the Russian team win gold in the team event. Before the individual competition, it emerged that trimetazidine, a banned substance, had been found in the figure skater’s doping sample taken at the Russian Championship in December 2021. CAS allowed the Russian skater to compete in the individual events at the Games, where she finished fourth.
“I hope that this court is a legal body that will proceed from legal criteria and nothing else. Do I believe she will be exonerated? That is reading tea leaves, and I don’t do that. Knowing this girl and the whole situation, I don’t believe Kamila did anything intentionally. The decision will be made by the court, and I hope it will conduct the case according to legal criteria,” Lakernik said, as quoted by Metaratings.ru.
In January, the Anti-Doping Disciplinary Committee of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) ruled that although the athlete had committed an anti-doping rule violation, she bore “no fault or negligence.” Valieva avoided sanctions, except for the annulment of her results on the date of sample collection, December 25, 2021. Subsequently, RUSADA, the International Skating Union (ISU), and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) all appealed to CAS. WADA is seeking a four-year ban for the 17-year-old athlete. All appeals were later consolidated into a single proceeding.
