What We Know and Don’t Know Concerning the Kamila Valieva Case

The decision by arbitrators to permit the Russian determine skater Kamila Valieva to compete this week introduced little readability to the dispute over her constructive take a look at for a banned substance. Some lingering questions are unlikely to be answered for weeks, if not months.

Valieva, the 15-year-old prodigy who final week grew to become the primary lady to land a quadruple leap in competitors, was essential to Russia’s victory within the workforce occasion, and he or she is extensively thought-about the favourite within the ladies’s particular person competitors that opens Tuesday night time in Beijing. However the penalties of her constructive take a look at are simply starting to ship their ripples throughout the skating world, and at the least a dozen of her rivals won’t be awarded their very own medals till her case is settled.

Right here’s what we all know thus far, and what we don’t.

What began this?

Valieva examined constructive for trimetazidine, a banned substance. The drug, generally known as TMZ, is a coronary heart treatment that would improve endurance. The constructive end result got here from a urine pattern that Valieva submitted on the Russian nationwide championship on Dec. 25. However her constructive end result was not confirmed and relayed to Russian officers, after which to her, for greater than six weeks. Russia’s antidoping company mentioned it realized of the failed take a look at on Feb. 7, the day Valieva led the Russians to a gold medal within the workforce occasion.

Did Valieva know she was taking a banned substance?

It isn’t identified if Valieva knowingly took a banned drug. Many specialists mentioned, based mostly on previous circumstances, it was potential that she had been given the drug by adults, in all probability with out her data.

The adults round her — coaches, trainers and medical personnel who could have identified in regards to the drug use or supplied her with trimetazidine — may face punishment.

Valieva has not spoken with reporters since her constructive take a look at was revealed.

Who’s her coach, and what has she mentioned?

Valieva’s coach, Eteri Tutberidze, advised Russia’s state-run TV community Channel One on Saturday, in her first public feedback on the case, that there have been “many questions and only a few solutions” when it got here to the constructive take a look at end result.

What punishment may Valieva obtain?

If she is dominated ineligible, even weeks or months from now, she or the Russian workforce might be stripped of their gold medals from the workforce occasion. And if she wins a medal in ladies’s singles, that might be revoked, too. The Worldwide Olympic Committee mentioned Monday that no medals might be given in occasions in Beijing wherein Valieva has received or claimed a spot on the rostrum, at the least till the case is resolved.

As a result of she is youthful than 16, Valieva is taken into account a “protected particular person” by the World Anti-Doping Company and due to this fact may obtain a lesser punishment than an grownup who may obtain a most two-year suspension. If she will be able to present her use of the drug was unintentional, she may obtain solely a reprimand, and be capable of maintain her medal or medals.

Why was she allowed to go to Beijing within the first place?

If the outcomes from her Dec. 25 drug take a look at had been reported in a well timed method, it’s potential that Valieva wouldn’t have been in a position to attend the Beijing Video games.

Travis T. Tygart, the chief government of the US Anti-Doping Company, called it “complete gross incompetence” that it took greater than a month for Valieva’s take a look at end result to be reported by the lab, and he mentioned that the Russian antidoping company and the World Anti-Doping Company, which operates the lab in Stockholm, ought to have expedited the end result with the Olympics approaching. WADA mentioned Monday that Russia had didn’t flag the urgency of the take a look at to the lab, which could have led to a speedier turnaround. Russian officers have mentioned they imagine the lab had employees shortages due to the pandemic.

Isn’t Russia banned from the Olympics?

Russia has been banned from the newest three Olympics after it was revealed that it performed a state-sponsored doping scheme on the 2014 Video games in Sochi, Russia. However Russian athletes have been allowed to compete with particular permission as so-called impartial athletes. At these Video games, they’re competing because the Russian Olympic Committee, however the Russian flag can’t be displayed nor can its anthem be performed at medal ceremonies.

Who determined Valieva may proceed to compete?

The Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport, the best authorized physique in world sports activities, appointed a panel to judges who dominated on a slim procedural level: Ought to Russia’s antidoping company reinstate a provision ban that it imposed on Valieva final week after which rapidly lifted? The panel mentioned Monday that it might be unfair and trigger “irreparable hurt” to Valieva if she have been barred from the Olympic competitors.

The panel of arbitrators mentioned it “thought-about elementary ideas of equity, proportionality, irreparable hurt and the steadiness of pursuits” between Valieva and the organizations, which included the I.O.C., searching for to bar her from the Video games. It additionally famous that she was a minor and didn’t take a look at constructive in the course of the Olympics.

Who determined to not award medals in her occasions?

The Worldwide Olympic Committee determined that Valieva — and the opposite medalists in her occasion, ought to she end among the many high three — wouldn’t be acknowledged within the conventional method after occasions that included her due to lingering doubts about her eligibility.

That features each the flower ceremony — in Beijing, athletes are offered with a toy mascot of the Video games — and the medal ceremony.

Why can’t her rivals obtain medals, both?

It seems that the I.O.C. is holding out the chance that Valieva might be stripped of medals and her rivals might be elevated to increased awards. However the committee didn’t clarify why it might not award medals to rival rivals within the interim.

When will medals be awarded in Valieva’s occasions?

The I.O.C. mentioned there could be no medal ceremony in the course of the Video games for the workforce occasion, and none in the course of the Video games for the ladies’s particular person occasion if Valieva finishes within the high three. It mentioned it might conduct “dignified medal ceremonies as soon as the case of Ms. Valieva has been concluded,” a course of that would take months.

If Valieva doesn’t end within the high three within the ladies’s competitors, the medals could be awarded as regular. However given her skills, that might be a shock.

May the US be elevated to gold within the workforce determine skating occasion?

The U.S. workforce received silver within the occasion, behind the Russians. If Valieva, or the Russian workforce as a complete, is disqualified because of the doping case, even months from now, the U.S. workforce could be awarded the gold medal. In such a case, Japan, which received the bronze, would rise to the silver, and Canada, which completed fourth, could be awarded the bronze.

When is Valieva anticipated to skate once more?

She has been cleared to compete within the ladies’s singles competitors, which begins with the brief program on Tuesday night time in Beijing (Tuesday morning in the US), and concludes with the free skate on Thursday night time in Beijing (Thursday morning in the US). She participated in practices on Sunday and Monday however declined to talk to reporters afterward.