LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — The Olympic doping case involving teenage Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva will resume for two more days in November, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said Thursday.
The highest court in sports said its panel of three judges adjourned the appeal after the third day of a closed-door hearing and will return on Nov. 9-10.
“(The judges) ordered the production of further documentation and, in order to allow the parties to consider and address such documentation, allowed two further days for the hearing,” CAS said in a statement.
Now 17 years old, Valieva was only 15 when her positive doping test for a banned heart medication was revealed at the Beijing Olympics in February 2022.
With the unforeseen delay, a verdict isn’t expected until next year.
The United States finished second behind the Russians in the team event in Beijing and never got their medals. They could be upgraded to become Olympic champions if Russia sanctioned.
Valieva tested positive for trimetazidine in a sample taken at the Russian championships. The test result, however, was delayed and not known until she started competing in Beijing.
She was allowed by a previous CAS panel to compete in the individual women’s event and finished fourth with a mistake-filled free program under intense scrutiny and pressure.
Valieva’s defense has been that her positive test was caused by accidental contamination — maybe from a glass or plate — by tablets her grandfather claimed he took.
A Russian anti-doping tribunal’s ruling announced in January said Valieva, as an underage minor, was not at fault and should not be disqualified from the Olympics.
The appeal hearing at CAS this week was brought by the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Skating Union challenging that Russian ruling.
WADA has asked the judges to ban Valieva for four years until December 2025 and disqualify her from the Olympics. The ISU wants a ban of at least two years and disqualification. The Russian anti-doping agency also joined the appeal and suggested a reprimand would do.
Valieva has not skated internationally since Beijing because of an ISU ban on Russians following the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
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