“It was actually possible to compete for Olympic gold.” Lawyer Antseliovich – about Valieva’s disqualification

Sports lawyer Anna Antseliovich said on that the Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva got the chance to compete in the CAS for the gold medal of the 2022 Olympic Games.

Previously, the CAS disqualified the skater for four years for violating anti-doping rules. The 17-year-old Russian’s suspension period begins on December 25, 2021, and her results have been canceled since that date. The athlete’s sample contained banned trimetazidine.

— The decision is important, the CAS arbitrators explain in detail why they made this or that decision. When I started reading this decision, I felt like it was such a justifying part, where they were trying to explain why such a harsh sanction was applied.

—Was Valieva weakly defended?

— For reasons of professional ethics, I cannot comment on something in which I was not involved. And I haven’t seen the full material.

We saw that the referees did not accept the version presented by the athlete. They felt this had not been proven, emphasizing that the athlete had made a good impression. They believed in his sincerity. But they believe that neither the defense nor the witnesses have provided sufficient evidence.

— It seemed like they were jumping from one version to another.

— We have made the decision requested by WADA. It was also decided to annul the results. This is largely due to the fact that they granted him a retrospective disqualification.

Here it is necessary to understand to what extent the athlete realized that if she is retrospectively disqualified and two years are counted from 2021, from the date of collection, this means automatic deprivation of gold Olympic. In fact, it was possible to compete for Olympic gold. And in many ways, this retrospective disqualification was precisely due to the arbitrators’ desire to exclude the question of gold from the discussion.

And the fact that there were several versions… Indeed, the referees don’t really like that. But since the protected person is not obliged to show a specific source, he could propose that three versions correspond to the required level,” Antseliovich said in the program “Gromko” of the channel.

The ISU revoked all of Valieva’s results during this period, including her performance at the Olympic Games and her gold medal at the 2022 European Championship.