What’s Going on With Kamila Valieva?

Kamila Valieva is a name that probably many have heard or seen in the last week.

The 15-year-old figure skater representing the Russian Olympic Committee has been at the center of a doping controversy after she tested positive for trimetazidine, a drug used to treat heart-related conditions.

During the figure skating team event at the start of the Olympics, Valieva helped her team win the gold medal with her untouchable total score of 178.92, nabbing the top spot herself in the women’s free skate that was held on Feb. 7.

The medal ceremony for the team event was originally scheduled for Feb. 8, but it was delayed over a situation that required “legal consultation” with the International Skating Union, according to International Olympic Committee spokesperson Mark Adams. The situation in question was Valieva’s positive doping test.

Since the news broke, many have questioned whether the ROC should even continue competing in the Olympics, what will happen to Valieva and if the ROC should be stripped of its team medal.

The women’s singles final, one of the most anticipated events of Olympic figure skating, will be held on Thursday. Valieva is a favorite to win the gold.

Here, WWD breaks down all you need to know about Valieva and the rest of the figure skating events in the Winter Olympics. Scroll on for more.

Who is Kamila Valieva?

Valieva is a figure skater from Kazan, Russia, born on April 26, 2006.

Despite her young age, Valieva has accrued an array of accolades in her career so far. She is the current champion for the 2022 European Figure Skating Championships, the 2021 Rostelecom Cup, the 2021 Skate Canada International and the 2022 Russian Figure Skating Championships. She won the silver medal in the 2021 Russian national.

Valieva is also the current world record holder for the women’s short program, free skating and total scores, setting a total of nine world records in her career so far.

She is the second woman to land the quadruple toe loop (after her teammate Alexandra Trusova), the fourth woman to land a quadruple jump of any kind and the third woman to land a triple Axel and quadruple jump in the same program after the U.S.’ Alysa Liu and her teammate Sofia Akateva.

What is the controversy surrounding Kamila Valieva?

When the medal ceremony for the team figure skating event was placed on hold, multiple media outlets reported it was due to a positive doping test by Valieva. On Feb. 11, it was confirmed that Valieva had tested positive for trimetazidine, a drug banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Trimetazidine is a drug used for chest pain or pressure from coronary heart disease usually due to insufficient blood flow to the heart. It causes blood vessels to dilate, making the heart work more efficiently for a longer period of time. It is listed under the category of “hormone and metabolic modulator” in the WADA’s list of banned substances. It is illegal for athletes to use due to past evidence of performance enhancement.

However, the controversy is multilayered. Valieva’s positive diagnosis was a routine urine sample she had to submit back on Dec. 25, when she was still competing in the Russian National Figure Skating Championships. It was taken by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), but it was not actually analyzed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) laboratory until Feb. 8, one day after the team event finished. This meant more than six weeks had lapsed since she submitted the sample that was positive.

The reasoning behind the long wait for the results are still unclear, but the Russian Anti-Doping Agency attributes it to COVID-19.

Additionally, Valieva is still a minor and under the age of 16, which means, under the World Anti-Doping Agency guidelines, she is a “Protected Person” and thus typically not responsible for taking banned substances. As a “Protected Person,” Valieva is not subject to the same rules and regulations as adult athletes.

Following the positive result on Feb. 11, the RUSADA immediately placed her under a provisional suspension, but lifted the ban a day later.

Following appeals from the IOC, the International Skating Union and WADA to review the RUSADA’s decision to lift the ban, the Court of Arbitration for Sport reviewed the case on Feb. 13. The removal of the provisional ban on Valieva was upheld on Feb. 14, a day before the women’s singles event commenced.

What did the Court of Arbitration for Sport conclude?

The CAS declined to reinstate Valieva’s suspension and ruled she was allowed to compete for the remainder of the Olympics, including the women’s singles event this week.

“The panel considered that preventing the athlete to compete at the Olympic Games would cause her irreparable harm in the circumstances,” CAS director general Matthieu Reeb said.

The decision was made on three grounds. The first being that Valieva is under 16, thus a “Protected Person” under the World Anti-Doping Code. The second is that she did not test positive for doping during the Olympic Games in Beijing. Finally, the panel highlighted “there were serious issues of untimely notification of the results…which impinged upon the athlete’s ability to establish certain legal requirements for her benefit.”

However, the case is still subject to further and ongoing investigations into the people directly involved with Valieva, such as her coaches, team doctors and others.

Following the statement, the IOC stated that if Valieva were to finish in the top three in the women’s singles, the medal and flower ceremony would not take place until the investigation is over. The same applies to the team event medal ceremony, which was supposed to take place on Feb. 8. ROC finished first, with the U.S. taking second place and Japan taking third.

No medal ceremonies mean that other competitors, if Valieva and the ROC were to finish in the top three, would also not receive their medals.

Is Kamila Valieva able to continue competing in the Winter Olympics?

Yes. Valieva has already participated in the women’s short program on Feb. 15, taking the number-one spot with a score of 82.16. Following behind her was her ROC teammate Anna Shcherbakova and Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto in second and third place, respectively.

Shortly after the women’s short program, the New York Times reported that Valieva’s sample tested positive for two more heart medications, hypoxen and L-Carnatine, in addition to trimetazidine. However, hypoxen and L-Carnatine are not on the WADA’s banned list. Anti-doping officials did note the discovery of multiple substances in an athlete’s sample as “highly unusual,” especially in someone as young as Valieva.

She will skate again in the women’s free skate, the medal event, on Feb. 17, where she is expected to medal.

What will happen to the gold medal Kamila Valieva already won?

Though the ROC is still recognized as the winner in the team figure skating event, there will be no medal ceremony for it. It seems whichever event Valieva partakes in and finishes in the top three (individually and team), no medals will be awarded until her doping case is resolved, which could take months to investigate.

What do the other Olympic athletes think?

When the news broke that Valieva had tested positive for doping and was still allowed to compete, other Olympians, both current and former, had serious thoughts to air out. Though many were outraged by the controversy, some felt sympathy toward Valieva due to her young age.

Former American figure skater Adam Rippon wrote a series of tweets when the news broke on Feb. 11.

The IOC’s ban on Russia’s participation in the Olympics was NOT strict enough. I believe that the ROC athletes are doing what they’re told in an effort to please their coaches and federation. I blame those in charge. Flops.

— Adam Rippon (@AdamRippon) February 11, 2022

Rippon helped Team USA win the bronze medal during the team event at the last Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang in 2018.

Scott Moir, a retired Canadian skater, told Time about how he felt regarding Valieva and Russia’s doping controversy. Moir is a two-time Olympic gold medalist in the ice dance event, along with his partner Tessa Virtue.

“I feel sick to my stomach. What I’m feeling is my whole dedication to my sport, to my community and to my country — I’m questioning it all,” he told the outlet. “I’m questioning why I walked into schools for the past 12 years of my life and told kids what pride I took in being an Olympian and what that means, and what power sports has in bringing the world together, for fair play and the Olympic morals that we all believe in.

“I do feel for the 15-year-old, but at the end of the day, if she did cheat, it’s very simple to me — she shouldn’t be competing,” he continued. “I do put the blame for that on people around her, and not so much on her. But this is a big hit to the Olympic movement.”

U.S. sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson also responded to the decision to allow Valieva to continue competing, stating there is a double standard.

Can we get a solid answer on the difference of her situation and mines? My mother died and I can’t run and was also favored to place top 3. The only difference I see is I’m a black young lady. https://t.co/JtUfmp3F8L

— Sha’Carri Richardson (@itskerrii) February 14, 2022

Richardson qualified for the Tokyo Summer Olympics last year but received a one-month suspension by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency after testing positive for THC metabolites, indicating recent cannabis use. As a result, she did not partake in the Summer Games.

“Btw THC definitely is not a performance enhance!!!!” Richardson wrote in a tweet.

She followed up with another tweet: “Failed in December and the world just now know however my resulted [sic] was posted within a week and my name & talent was slaughtered to the people.”

Yuna Kim, a South Korean retired figure skater who won the women’s singles event in the 2010 Winter Olympics, also spoke out against the decision by posting a simple black square on her Instagram.

“Athlete who violates doping cannot compete in the game,” her accompanying caption read. “This principle must be observed without exception. All players’ efforts and dreams are equally precious.”

Other figure skaters competing against Valieva were also disappointed in the decision, telling the Washington Post how they felt.

“I wish it was a level playing field and it’s not, but they’ve made a decision they’ve made and I can’t do anything about that,” Great Britain’s Natasha McKay told the outlet.

“What’s fair is that I’m here and that I did it in a way that I’m very proud,” Team USA’s Mariah Bell said. “I don’t know about anything else. It’s not my business. Obviously, I feel sad for my teammates. It seems wrong to punish people who have done things the right way.”

“A doping athlete competing against a clean athlete is obviously not fair,” Team USA’s Alysa Liu said. “I don’t know what happened [with Valieva], but I believe in clean sport.”

Will Russia be penalized again?

So far, nothing has been announced regarding penalizing Russia for another doping controversy in the Olympics.

Technically, Russia is still not allowed to compete in the Olympics due to a four-year ban on global sporting events instituted by the World Anti-Doping Agency over the country’s athletes using performance-enhancing drugs.

In 2017, Russia was suspended from competing in the Olympic Games due to a state-sponsored doping scandal. The scheme, which included at least 15 medal winners from the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, was first revealed in 2016 by a whistleblower. As a result, the IOC suspended Russia, but after an appeal by several Russian athletes who did not partake in the scheme, the CAS concluded that they can compete in global competitions but only as neutral athletes.

Russian athletes, however, can still compete in the 2022 Winter Games as athletes for ROC, which is an acronym for Russian Olympic Committee. The athletes are also permitted to wear the colors of the Russian flag. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Russian athletes competed as “Olympic Athletes From Russia.”

Russia’s Olympics ban ends in December 2022.

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