“Four years of disqualification for Valieva is very hard. But it’s their policy, now everything is directed against us.” – Shepikov

Double Olympic champion in biathlon, deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Sergei Chepikov described the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) concerning the Russian figure skater as severe Kamila Valieva noting that this is largely a political decision.

On Monday, the CAS decided to find Valieva guilty of violating anti-doping rules and disqualify her for 4 years from the date of the anti-doping test – December 25, 2021. The athlete should 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. The CAS decision can be appealed to the Swiss Federal Court within 30 days.

– Four years? It’s hard. But we are no longer surprised by all these actions by international sports structures. Because everything they have now is aimed at us. I don’t completely understand this. Of course, this is their policy: any motive is now used against Russia, whether it is sports or another area,” Chepikov 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.