Russia’s Anti-Doping Agency filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Friday in the case of Kamila Valieva, asking that the teenage figure skater receive lesser punishment and be allowed to keep her Olympic gold medal.
The CAS confirmed that it registered three separate appeals — from the Russian agency known as RUSADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Skating Union. The appeals could be brought together in a single process to decide the case that cast a shadow over the past Winter Olympics.
WADA previously indicated that it asked the CAS to impose a four-year ban. The ISU, for its acronym in English, called for a discretionary punishment.
“At this time it is not possible to give a timetable for making a decision,” the court said.
The three parties who filed an appeal will have to cooperate to choose one of the three judges from the usual CAS panel. In a normal process, Valieva’s legal team would choose a judge and the court would appoint the chairperson of the panel.
RUSADA, WADA and the ISU challenged the Russian anti-doping tribunal’s decision last year that Valieva was “neither responsible nor negligent” in her positive case in December 2021 for the drug trimetazidine, which is banned in sport. The court disqualified Valieva from the Russian national championship, but not from other events.
The positive was revealed weeks later during the Olympics, where he helped the Russian team win the gold medal in the team event.
At 15, Valieva was favorite to win the women’s singles event in Beijing, but after several days of intense media coverage and an appeal to CAS she was allowed to compete, she finished fourth in the singles event.
RUSADA acknowledged that Valieva broke anti-doping rules and suggested that she face “appropriate consequences (which may or may not include limited to a reprimand),” the CAS added in a statement.
There was no medal ceremony in the team event in Beijing. The United States never received the silver medal and it could go up to gold.
