Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva banned for 4 years, Team USA could receive Olympic gold medal

Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva has been banned from the sport until 2025 after an anti-doping rule violation. She will be stripped of her awards.

Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva has been handed a ban from the sport until 2025 by the Court of Arbitration for Sport after being found guilty of an anti-doping rule violation. This means she will be stripped of any awards she earned since late 2021, including her gold in the team event at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Valieva tested positive for the banned drug trimetazidine, and although the court allowed her to compete in the Beijing Games as they investigated, they ultimately ruled that she would be suspended for four years. This decision was made despite the fact that she was just 15 years old at the time of the violation, meaning she had to adhere to different rules than an adult athlete.

The International Olympic Committee stated that if Valieva placed in the competition, there would be no podium ceremony to hand out the medals. This means that the gold medal in the team figure skating competition, which was initially awarded to Russia, may now be given to Team USA, nearly two years after the event.

In response to Valieva's suspension, the U.S. Olympics and Paralympics Committee expressed their anticipation for the day when they can celebrate their athletes who competed in Beijing, emphasizing their commitment to clean competition.

The court's ruling also means that all of Valieva's competitive results from December 25, 2021, onward will be disqualified, and she will forfeit titles, awards, medals, profits, prizes, and appearance money. This decision comes after Valieva claimed that the medication she took was her grandfather's and that she accidentally took it after a mix-up, but the court's investigation found that she could not prove that she did not intentionally take the medication.

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