“I would not be surprised if the decision was made in January 2025 or December 2026” – Guberniev on Valieva’s case

Commentator and presenter Dmitry Guberniev told he would not be surprised if the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) makes a decision in the Russian figure skater’s case Kamila Valieva in January 2025 or December 2026.

On Friday, it became known that the CAS hearings in the Valieva case had ended. A final decision is expected by the end of January 2024.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the decision in Valieva’s case is made in January 2025 or December 2026.” People are in no hurry. You have to get used to it, be patient and wait. The worst thing, of course, is to wait and catch up, but we cannot influence the situation in any way. Therefore, here you just need to be patient.

— What do you think about such a long period of consideration of Valieva’s case?

– Well, it’s always like that! Remember times when something unexpected happened before the Olympics and World Championships. People were waiting to make something public at the right time. And now no one is in a hurry. Because why rush with us? We are for them, apparently, what we have and what we do not have, unfortunately. Even if we exist in figure skating! It’s more likely that they don’t exist. But that’s life,” Guberniev told .

At the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Valieva helped the Russian team win gold in the team competition. Before the personal tournament, it became known that the banned drug trimetazidine was found during the doping test of the figure skater of the Russian championship. The CAS admitted the Russian to the individual competitions of the Games, where she took fourth place. The award ceremony for the Olympic medalists in the team tournament has not yet taken place.

In January this year, the Russian Anti-Doping Agency’s Anti-Doping Disciplinary Committee (DAK RUSADA) ruled that although Valieva had committed an anti-doping rule violation, she bore “no fault or negligence.” The athlete avoided sanctions, except for the cancellation of his results on the date of sample collection – December 25, 2021. Subsequently, RUSADA, the International Skating Union (ISU) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) filed appeals to CAS, which were consolidated into one proceeding. The first CAS hearings took place from September 26 to 28, after which the court decided to resume them on November 9 and 10 due to the need to prepare additional documents.

Valieva, 17, will perform at the Russian Grand Prix in Kazan on November 11-12.