Kamila Valieva: American skater Vincent Zhou criticises anti-doping system before Russian's hearing

Kamila Valieva competing at Winter Olympics 2022Getty Images

Kamila Valieva helped the Russian team to win gold ahead of the USA, Japan and Canada at the 2022 Winter Olympics

By Jess Anderson
BBC Sport

American figure skater Vincent Zhou says the global anti-doping system is "failing athletes" with Russian Kamila Valieva's doping case set to be heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) on Tuesday.

Details of a failed drugs test emerged after Valieva won team gold at the 2022 Winter Olympics as the USA took silver.

The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada) found that Valieva bore "no fault or negligence" for the positive test but the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) is appealing against those findings.

Wada, along with the International Skating Union (Isu), says Rusada's decision was "wrong under the terms of the World Anti-Doping Code" and is seeking a four-year ban.

Zhou and his team-mates are still waiting to receive the medals they won in Beijing last year and he says that when the awards ceremony for the team event eventually takes place it will be "a symbol of the gross failures" of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Cas and Rusada.

"As my team's empty medal boxes show, the global anti-doping system is failing athletes," Zhou said in a statement.

He criticised the way the case has been handled, saying he and his team-mates have heard "almost nothing" in the 19 months since the Games took place.

"We have no reason to believe that our interests are being adequately represented," he added, saying that not receiving a medal has negatively affected sponsorship deals.

'Justice delayed is justice denied'

Valieva, then 15, failed a drugs test in December 2021 when she tested positive for banned heart medication trimetazidine.

Details of the result only surfaced after she had won gold in the team event at the Beijing Games, during which she became the first woman to land a quadruple jump at a Winter Olympics.

She was allowed to compete in the women's singles event when a court lifted her provisional ban but left the arena in tears after a number of falls and stumbles meant she slipped from first to fourth place.

Wada said earlier this year it was "concerned" by the decision to clear Valieva and wants the expunging of all her results from the date of the sample collection on 25 December 2021.

Cas says it is unsure when the results of the hearing will be released.

It will take place in Lausanne, with Valieva and some of the experts and witnesses set to be heard by video conference.

Zhou and his team-mates asked if they could observe the hearing but were told that they could not, as it will be held in private.

"An open and transparent hearing would go a long way towards helping athletes understand any decision that is rendered," Zhou said.

"Transparency would build confidence in a global anti-doping system that has lost the trust of its most important stakeholders: athletes."

Valieva returned to competition after Rusada cleared her, taking second place in the Russian Figure Skating Championships at the end of 2022.

But, the case has also raised questions about how the teenage athlete was treated and prompted the skating federation to raise the lower age limit for its senior category from 15 to 17 from 2024, citing the "physical, mental and emotional health" of competitors.

Zhou also criticised global sport administrators for allowing Russia to compete at the Olympics despite a "state-sponsored doping programme" which is "widely known to have corrupted multiple Olympic Games".

"My team-mates and I are aware of widespread doping by other Russian skaters," Zhou added.

"Unfortunately, this should surprise no-one, given that a non-compliant anti-doping organisation is still tasked with ensuring the integrity of sport inside Russia.

"Justice delayed is justice denied and my team-mates and I will never get back the chance to stand before the world to celebrate a lifetime's worth of hard work culminating in a career-defining achievement."

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