Banned figure skater Kamila Valieva blames positive doping test on dessert made by her grandfather

The Court docket of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has rejected banned Russian determine skater Kamila Valieva’s declare her optimistic doping take a look at resulted from a strawberry dessert ready by her grandfather on a chopping board he used to crush his treatment capsules.

CAS has printed a 129-page detailed ruling from its three judges to clarify why they imposed a four-year ban on Valieva, whose doping case at age 15 shocked the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

The very best courtroom in sport discovered Valieva responsible of committing an anti-doping rule violation (ADRV), following the discovering of trimetazidine (TMZ) in a pattern collected from her in December 2021, throughout the Russian Nationwide Championships.

CAS stated in her submissions Valieva asserted the prohibited substance entered her physique by way of the consumption of the dessert ready by her grandfather on a board he used to crush his capsules containing TMZ.

It was instructed in courtroom Valieva’s grandfather ready the strawberry dessert within the days earlier than the nationwide championships for her to take along with her to St Petersburg.

“The CAS panel decided that this clarification was not corroborated by any concrete proof and that the athlete was not in a position to set up that she had not dedicated the ADRV deliberately,” CAS stated.

CAS went on to say that as Valieva failed to determine that she didn’t commit the ADRV deliberately, and because the “no vital fault or negligence” criterion was not met, there was no foundation to deal with her any otherwise from an grownup athlete.

The phrase “strawberry” featured 43 instances within the doc that particulars why the judges rejected Valieva’s argument.

All of Valieva’s aggressive outcomes because the date of the offence have been voided, together with the gold medal she helped the Russian Olympic Committee win within the staff occasion on the Beijing Winter Video games.

Russia stated it might enchantment the choice to strip it of the medal.

When Valieva examined optimistic for the banned coronary heart treatment in 2021, the take a look at consequence was not despatched from a laboratory in Stockholm, Sweden till six weeks later throughout the Beijing Olympics.

Valieva had already skated within the staff occasion in Beijing and was allowed to proceed competing within the girls’s particular person competitors.

Beneath intense scrutiny, her error-filled free skate dropped her to a fourth-place end.

Athletes who take a look at optimistic for doping can escape a ban in the event that they later show they weren’t at fault for ingesting a substance.

Reuters/AP