Mitigating factors in six-week delay for Valieva's test result

BEIJING : More than six weeks went by from the time teenage Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva's sample was collected and the day she heard at the Beijing Olympics that she tested positive for a banned substance at her national championships.

The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) immediately questioned the timeline, wondering what might have happened in that time frame after the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) lifted the 15-year-old's provisional suspension, allowing her to further train and compete.

While a six-week delay is unusual, there could be mitigating factors.

Test results during the Games take between 24-72 hours for a result, depending on the kind of test, but the process during the Olympics is expedited given the urgent need for quick results with many athletes competing in several events.

However, delays can vary outside of the Olympics, said Jean-Pierre Verdy, the former director of testing at the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD), who helped bust several top names on the Tour de France.

"Between a sample's delivery time, added to the analysis time and re-analysis time to confirm the presence of a specific substance, and the fact that you have to send the screenings to several labs to get external confirmation - and some labs don't have that kind of experience - the delays can be long," he told Reuters.

"So unless it's a substance that's commonly targeted, a lab never gets a result out without the opinion of some of their peers."

ROC head Stanislav Pozdnyakov said the long gap between the Dec. 25 doping test and the Feb. 8 announcement looked suspicious and he had "serious questions about the process".

Valieva's result was reported from a WADA-accredited laboratory in Stockholm only on Tuesday, according to the