“I hope that our managers will draw the right conclusions after the story with Valieva” – Kovalchuk

Olympic hockey champion Ilya Kovalchuk in a conversation with , he called the figure skater’s disqualification Kamila Valieva a sporting tragedy that must not be repeated.

On Monday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decided to find Valieva guilty of violating anti-doping rules and disqualify her for 4 years from the date of collection of the doping sample – December 25, 2021. The athlete is expected to be stripped of all medals from this date, including gold at the 2022 Olympic Games in the team tournament and at the 2022 European Championships.

— You worked as manager of the Russian national team at the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing. How did you react to today’s news of Kamila Valieva’s disqualification?

— We were all worried about Camila in Beijing. We specifically went to support her during the women’s final. Look, this is such a sporting tragedy. They also won the team competition.

But we have to understand this, honestly. I don’t want to be some sort of judge. Emotionally, it’s insulting and annoying. But we must be more careful in our preparation. We already understand that we are under an immense magnifying glass. And giving a reason is wrong. I hope our officials will draw the right conclusions. This shouldn’t happen. Especially with an underage girl,” Kovalchuk told .

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.