(Reuters) – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said on Friday it had received applications from the International Olympic Committee and World Anti-Doping Agency appealing a decision to lift Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva’s doping suspension.
The 15-year-old, who became the first woman to land a quadruple jump at the Olympics en route to winning a team figure skating gold with the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) on Monday, tested positive for banned heart drug Trimetazidine in a urine sample collected by Russian authorities on Dec. 25.
However, medals for that event, in which the United States and Japan finished second and third, have yet to be handed out after Olympic officials discovered her positive test.
Russia’s own anti-doping agency, RUSADA, had provisionally suspended Valieva after they were informed of the positive test but then lifted the ban a day later, allowing Valieva to continue her participation at the Beijing Games.
CAS said in a news release that a panel of arbitrators will be “appointed shortly” to decide the matter and that the date and time of the decision will be announced after a hearing.
CAS’s ruling will not only determine if the ROC will be disqualified from the team event, thus losing their gold medal, but also if Valieva will be allowed to compete in the women’s individual competition which begins next Tuesday.
Valieva, who is one of the youngest Olympians ever to test positive for a banned substance, skated in practice earlier on Friday.
Russian athletes are already competing in Beijing as the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) – without their national flag and anthem – due to past sanctions for state-sponsored doping.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto and Dhruv Munjal in Bengaluru; Editing by Pritha Sarkar)
