Skier Stepanova on Valieva’s case: “Another reason to ask whether we need such an “international” sport, controlled by the West?

Olympic ski relay champion Veronica Stepanova spoke about the disqualification of the skater Kamila Valieva questioning the fairness of the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in the Russian’s case.

On Monday, the CAS suspended Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva for four years for violating anti-doping rules. The athlete is expected to be stripped of all medals from December 25, 2021, including gold from the 2022 Olympic Games in the team tournament and the 2022 European Championships. The CAS decision can be challenged before the Swiss Federal Court within 30 days.

“We all know where decisions like today come from. Another reason to think: do we really need such an “international” sport, sponsored and managed by the West? We are even stronger – and in a fair fight we will prove it more than once. If there is a fair fight, it will be on the ice or on the ski slopes, and not on the courts,” Stepanova wrote on the Telegram channel.

Valieva at the Beijing Olympics helped the Russian team win gold in the team competition. Before the personal tournament, it became known that the banned drug trimetazidine was found in the doping sample of the figure skater of the Russian championship. The CAS allowed the Russian to participate in the individual competitions at the Games, where she finished fourth.

In January 2023, the anti-doping disciplinary committee of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (DAK RUSADA) ruled that although Valieva 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.