Judge in Russian Olympic figure skating doping case worked on Sharapova appeal

One of the lawyers that will judge Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva's doping case at the Beijing Olympics on Sunday is an American who was once picked by Maria Sharapova's legal team for her appeal over a similar performance-enhancing drug.

Jeffrey Benz was named Saturday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport to sit on the three-judge panel for the urgent case of Valieva, a 15-year-old Russian who tested positive for a banned heart medication at an event in December.

The verdict from Benz and his fellow judges, who are from Italy and Slovenia, is expected Monday and will decide if the sport's new star can compete a day later at the start of the women's individual event. She would be favoured to win gold on Thursday.

Neither side in the Valieva case was allowed to pick a preferred judge — as they would in a typical case outside the Olympics — but the Russians might be happy with the American.

Benz was an elite figure skater, competing in ice dance at the national level in the United States, and has been picked for several cases involving Russian sports as one of the most in-demand judges at CAS.

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In Sharapova's appeal at the Switzerland-based court in 2016, Benz was chosen on behalf of the Russian tennis star to serve on the three-judge panel. She had been banned for two years after testing positive for the banned heart medication meldonium at the Australian Open. CAS ruled she was not entirely at fault and her ban was cut to 15 months.

Valieva tested positive for another banned heart medication, trimetazidine.

Another skating case at CAS in 2017 saw Benz picked by the Russian national federation and RUSADA, the anti-doping agency