蜜芽传媒

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) has ruled that Kamila Valieva can compete again at the Winter Olympics after citing "exceptional circumstances" relating to her age and issues around timing of the test result. This means the 15-year-old Russian figure skater should not be provisionally suspended for a failed drugs test. But critics have questioned why an athlete who has failed a drugs test is being allowed to compete on the world's biggest stage.

Valieva, who returned a positive test for angina-prevention drug trimetazidine on 25 December last year, had been provisionally suspended on 8 February, but challenged the decision. The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada) lifted the ban the next day.

David Skretta, a sports writer for the Associated Press news agency, reports from Beijing. He says that this seems to ensure Valieva will be able to compete in the individual figure skating event, but that it may be months until resolution can be reached on whether she and other Russian athletes can retain the gold they won in the team competition last week. He goes on to say that there have been questions raised about how an athlete who has tested positive for a banned substance can carry on competing, and the integrity of the Russian Olympic Committee and the IOC, and why a stand against another doping allegation was not taken.

Photo: Kamila Valieva during a training session at the Beijing Winter Olympics, 13 Feb 2022. Credit: Reuters / Evgenia Novozhenina

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