WADA CEO says legal team failed Valieva

World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Director General Olivier Niggli has explained why Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva received the maximum sanction and said the legal team had failed the athlete.

Earlier on Wednesday, Russia’s Honored Coach Eteri Tutberidze issued a statement on social media questioning the competence of lawyers representing Valieva’s interests at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

— In accordance with special paragraph 10.3.1 of the World Anti-Doping Code, the maximum penalty for protected persons is two years. How was the decision to impose a four-year ban made?

“I don’t think two years is the maximum sentence.” Protected persons enjoy several rights that are not accessible to others. This includes some of the evidence they must present in court, as well as how they must explain the source and nature of the banned substance.

There are a number of options that can make life easier for a minor. Valieva’s team took advantage of these opportunities. However, in the end, the story that deserves the court’s attention leads to a dessert made by her grandfather. Nobody believed it. There was no evidence to support this theory. Ultimately, the result was that the team dropped the athlete because they could not prove the source of the substance. They showed nothing that could inspire confidence. The lack of any evidence of how the substance entered the athlete’s body led to maximum disqualification, Niggli said.

On Monday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) suspended Valieva, 17, for four years for violating anti-doping rules. The court release noted that the skater was unable to provide convincing evidence that the violation was unintentional. The disqualification period begins on December 25, 2021. The International Skating Union (ISU) announced that all of the athlete’s results from the date of sample collection have been canceled. This also led to a review of the results of the 2022 Olympics team tournament, where the Russian team won. First place is now awarded to the American team, the Japanese are second and the Russians will receive bronze.

Before the personal tournament at the Beijing Olympics, it became known that the banned drug trimetazidine was found during Valieva’s doping test at the Russian Championship. The CAS allowed the Russian to participate in the individual competitions at the Games, where she finished fourth, but this result was also annulled. The athlete also lost the title of European champion, the title went to Anna Shcherbakova.