The various preparations were given to Valieva between January 2020 and December 2021 when she was between 13 and 15 years old. None of these preparations were on WADA’s list of banned substances, the BBC reports.
Valieva was caught for doping in a test taken in December 2021, which, due to the pandemic, was not analyzed until the middle of the Beijing 2022 Olympics and produced the biggest scandal of the games and which has not yet received an end point.
– There are many people around the athlete who may have played a role in this. “Obviously they prefer to victimize her rather than give any answers or names,” Olivier Niggli, director general of the anti-doping agency Wada, told The Times.
– It’s actually disgusting, says US anti-doping chief Travis Tygart.
Legal dispute over the medals
Valieva claimed that she ingested the banned substance trimetazidine, a heart drug, after preparing a strawberry dessert on a cutting board where her grandfather had previously chopped up his medicine, which was dismissed by the arbitration court Cas.
Valieva, who had just turned 17, was suspended for four years in January. The suspension is retroactive and applies until December 25, 2025.
Russia won gold in the Olympics but was relegated to bronze after Valieva’s points were disqualified. The USA has moved up to gold with Japan in second place. Both Russia and Canada, which were the original four, have appealed to Cas. Russia wants to keep its gold while Canada wants the bronze.
There was a thought that the medal ceremony would take place in Paris in conjunction with the Olympics this summer but given all the legal proceedings it is highly unclear what will happen.