Russian skating sensation Kamila Valieva, 15, is CLEARED to continue in Winter Olympics

The Russian skating sensation Kamila Valieva has been cleared to continue at Beijing 2022 after the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled in the 15-year-old’s favour in the doping scandal that has rocked the Winter Olympics.

In a major reprieve, the court went against the appeals of the International Olympic Committee, World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Skating Union, who all contested the decision of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency to lift a provisional doping suspension against the skating prodigy last week.

Valieva, who won team gold last Monday, is now free to fight for the individual figure skating title on Tuesday, for which she will be the overwhelming favourite.

News of her positive for banned heart medication only came to light last Tuesday, despite failing a test on Christmas Day 2021 at the national championships. 

Her situation has cast a huge cloud over the Games, but in a ruling that will create huge controversy in some quarters, the three-person CAS panel declared she can remain in Beijing. A decision on whether Valieva’s committed an anti-doping rule violation will be made at a later date.

Citing the bizarre, unexplained delay between the positive, on December 25, and it being reported by a laboratory in Stockholm last Tuesday, the panel said there were ‘serious issues of untimely notification of the results of the athletes’ anti-doping test’.

The panel reasoned that this ‘infringed upon the athletes’ ability to establish certain legal requirements for her benefit’.

A statement added: ‘In particularly the panel considered that preventing the athlete from competing at the Olympic Games would cause her irreparable harm in these circumstances.’

CAS secretary general Matthieu Reeb, who refused to take questions at a press conference in Beijing, said: ‘The CAS Ad hoc Division was requested to determine the narrow issue as to whether a provisional suspension should be imposed on the athlete.

‘It was not requested to rule on the merits of this case, nor to examine the legal consequences relating to the results of the team event in figure skating, as such issues will be examined in other proceedings.’

Valieva’s team have protested her innocence in a frenzied week that has followed her groundbreaking performance on Monday, when she became the first woman in history to land a quad jump at an Olympics.

Her choreographer Alexey Zheleznyakov was asked on social media how Valieva came to test positive for trimetazidine at Christmas and said: ‘I’m not a god, I have no idea, there are a lot of options, but I’m sure of one thing: Kami doesn’t touch anything forbidden in life, with her talent it’s not necessary.’