Kremlin Rejects Olympic Decision On Athlete’s Doping

The Russian government has voiced its strong opposition to the doping penalty and consequent dethroning of adolescent figure skater Kamila Valieva and her colleagues from the Olympic gold medal. Russia will challenge these rulings.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) imposed a four-year doping suspension on Valieva. Consequently, the 2022 Beijing Winter Games gold medal won by the Russian Olympic Committee in the team event has been withdrawn.

While competing in the December 2021 Russian national championships, Valieva tested positive for the prohibited drug trimetazidine. The group working with her grandfather believes that a mistake with his cardiac medication may have caused a positive result.

The CAS panel, however, saw no justification to treat Valieva any more leniently than an adult who had broken an anti-doping regulation based on her age at the time of the infraction.

For as long as the Olympics have existed, Russia and the Soviet Union have used them to showcase their global dominance. Nevertheless, doping scandals over the last decade have damaged Moscow’s relationship with the International Olympic Committee. Consequently, its athletes have been forced to compete in many Games without the accompaniment of their national song or flag.

Russia declared on Tuesday that it will contest the decision to take away an Olympic gold medal. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration has condemned as politically motivated the doping punishment against Russian adolescent figure skater Kamila Valieva.

We profoundly disagree with both the court’s ruling and the federation’s decision. “We do not accept them,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, restating his earlier claim that the CAS decision was politically motivated.

As projected, Canada will be advanced to bronze after finishing fourth. Although Valieva’s marks were removed, the ROC still had a better overall score than Canada, as stated in the release by the ISU.

Peskov remarked that they celebrated these athletes as Olympic champions on their return from China for the Olympics. They firmly believe that no matter how unfair the ruling may be, they will forever be remembered as Olympic winners.