Kamila Valieva: Wada ‘disappointed’ after Russian figure skater’s suspension overturned

The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) says it is “disappointed” by the decision to overturn the Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva’s provisional suspension, after the 15-year-old was cleared to continue competing at the Beijing Winter Olympics despite testing positive for a banned substance.

Wada questioned the ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas ) to not uphold Valieva’s provisional doping suspension after the star figure skater returned a positive sample for the banned heart medication trimetazidine in December.

In making their decision, Cas said there were “exceptional circumstances” in Valieva’s case, citing a section of the Wada code that they claimed made her a “protected person” due to her age.

But in a further twist, Wada stated that Cas had implemented their code incorrectly when they made their ruling and disputed that Valieva should have been granted an exemption.

In a statement following the ruling, Wada said: “It appears that the Cas panel decided not to apply the terms of the code, which does not allow for specific exceptions to be made in relation to mandatory provisional suspensions for ‘protected persons’, including minors.”

Wada have also confirmed that they will investigate Valieva’s entourage, after the teenager produced a positive sample for trimetazidine during the Russian National Championships on Christmas Day. Trimetazidine, which is used to treat chest pain and angina, increases blood flow to the heart and was added to Wada’s list of prohibited substances in 2014.

Wada’s statement continued: “Concerning the analysis of the athlete’s sample, Wada always expects anti-doping organisations to liaise with the laboratories in order to ensure they expedite the analysis of samples so