The International Court of Appeal for Sports CAS published the protocol of the doping case of the Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva on Wednesday. It is 129 pages long.
Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva the handling of the doping case has been published in its entirety by the CAS of the International Court of Appeal for Sports on the homepage.
CAS announced on January 30, 2024 that Valieva’s four-year doping sentence will remain in effect. The verdict was driven by the World Anti-Doping Agency Wada, the International Skating Union ISU and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency Rusada.
The court proceedings led to the decision of the independent disciplinary board of the Russian Anti-Doping Commission, which would have cleared Valieva of the positive doping sample given on December 25, 2021. It contained trimetazidine, which is on Wada’s list of prohibited substances.
The cart was revealed in February 2022, in the middle of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Just a few days after the cart The New York Times reported that in addition to trimetazidine, performance-enhancing L-carnitine and hypoxene were found in Valieva’s doping sample.
However, Wada has not banned the last two substances so far. According to NYT, Valieva had listed the substances in the doping form, where the athlete declares, among other things, the drugs he uses in advance to avoid possible ambiguities.
When CAS announced its decision last week, but not yet its entire protocol, Urheilu reported that a third questionable, performance-enhancing substance was also found in Valieva’s doping sample, in addition to L-carnitine and hypoxene.
The CAS protocol confirms that the Stockholm laboratory that processed Valieva’s doping sample found ecdysterone in the Russian skater’s sample in addition to the above-mentioned substances.
Ecdysterone is described on Wada’s website as follows:
More and more dietary supplements containing ecdysteroids are marketed as “natural anabolic agents”. Advertisements promise more strength and muscle mass, as well as better endurance and recovery. Several studies have reported a wide range of pharmacological effects of ecdysteroids in mammals, most of which are beneficial to the organism. The most active phytoecdysteroid is ecdysterone (“Russian secret”). Russian Olympic athletes were suspected to have been using it since the 1980s. Extensive studies report potential growth-promoting effects of ecdysterone in various animal species (rats, mice, Japanese quail, and cattle). Recent studies suggest that the anabolic effect of ecdysterone is mediated by estrogen receptor binding. Compared to banned anabolic agents (eg methandienone), ecdysterone was revealed to be even more effective in a recent study in rats. However, scientific studies on humans are very rarely available.
The statement found on Wada’s website is from 2015. Although the text casts ecdysterone in a questionable light, it is nevertheless still allowed.
The main explanation became more detailed
The CAS protocol also details how Valijeva explained the trimetazidine that led to the doping verdict getting into her system.
In the past, there has been a story in the public domain, according to which Valieva inadvertently drank from the same water glass as her grandfather. Grandpa’s heart medication contains trimetazidine.
This was one of the explanations given by Valieva. However, strawberry dessert steals the main attention in the CAS protocol.
According to Valieva’s grandfather, heard in court, it is possible that he could have inadvertently dropped his medicine pill in Valieva’s dessert. Another possibility would be contamination from the cutting board she usually uses to crush the pill and which she had used to prepare the dessert.
Strawberry dessert appears 43 times in the protocol.
Valieva’s defense also did not rule out the possibility of sabotage at the Christmas 2021 Russian championships in St. Petersburg, where Valieva gave her sample that led to the cart.
A huge lump
Valieva’s case has been dealt with in CAS with exceptional piety. The length of the protocol, 129 pages, speaks for itself. For example, in 2021, holding the title of the fastest man in the world by Christian Coleman the processing of whereabouts violations fit into 61 pages in the CAS minutes.