CAS clears teen figure skater Kamila Valieva to compete at Winter Olympics

Kamila Valieva has been cleared to continue to compete at the Winter Olympics after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) determined that no provisional suspension should be imposed.

The CAS cited “exceptional circumstances” for its decision, after the 15-year-old submitted a positive sample for banned heart medication trimetazidine on Christmas Day.

It included Valieva’s status as a “protected person” under the World Anti-Doping Code, “serious issues” in the process of notifying Valieva of her result, and the fact a suspension could cause her “irreparable harm”.

The CAS panel said in a statement: “The panel considered fundamental principle of fairness, proportionality, irreparable harm, and the relative balance of interests as between the applicants and the athlete, who did not test positive during the Olympic Games in Beijing and is still subject to a disciplinary procedure on the merits following the positive anti-doping test undertaken in December 2021.

“In particular, the panel considered that preventing the athlete from competing at the Olympic Games would cause her irreparable harm in these circumstances.

“The CAS panel also emphasised that there were serious issues of untimely notification of the results in the athlete’s anti-doping test that was performed in December 2021 which impinged upon the athlete’s ability to establish certain legal requirements for her benefit, while such late notification was not her fault, in the middle of the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.”

Valieva competed in the team event last week, threatening her own world record in the short program before becoming the first female skater to land quad jumps at the Olympics in her free skate on February 8.

Meanwhile the Russian Anti-Doping