WADA is seeking a four-year period of ineligibility and disqualification of all the Valieva’s results from the date of the sample collection
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has filed an appeal against the decision of the disciplinary committee of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) to find Kamila Valieva not guilty.
source: WADA
Further to its statement of 13 January 2023, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has carefully reviewed the full reasoned decision and file related to the case of Russian Olympic Committee figure skater, Kamila Valieva.
Accordingly, WADA considers the finding by the disciplinary tribunal of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency that the athlete bore “no fault or negligence” to be wrong under the terms of the World Anti-Doping Code in this case and has exercised its right to lodge an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Within the appeal, WADA is seeking a four-year period of ineligibility and disqualification of all the athlete’s results from the date of the sample collection on 25 December 2021. As it has sought to do throughout this process, WADA will continue to push for this matter to proceed without further undue delay.
Given the case is now pending before CAS, WADA can make no further comment at this time.
Related topics: Kamila Valieva
Well said, Constance, can’t agree more. Thank you.
It’s a principle of law in most places that ignorance of the law doesn’t exempt from consequences of the law, i.e. if someone doesn’t know theft is a crime and they go on stealing something, they’ve still committed a crime and will be punished according to the law. Ignorance in that case isn’t bliss. Of course, there can be mitigating circumstances to soften punishment. Now, was Kamila knowingly taking forbidden substances? Probably not. Was she putting her trust into people who did not have her best interests at heart? Likely. Should those responsible face consequences for their actions? Absolutely. All these are mitigating factors. But they do not completely exonerate her. Even at 15 (at the time). Yes, she’s a minor. But even minors are culpable. Once you go compete against other people, you must be ready and willing to be held to the same standard as them, otherwise you have no business competing against them. And it doesn’t matter whether you knew you broke the rules or not, fact is you broke them and need to accept the consequences.