Russian teenager Kamila Valieva was cleared Monday to compete in the women’s Olympic figure skating competition despite a failed drug test that came to light during these Winter Games.
The decision, made by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, was not a popular one.
The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee came out strong against the decision in a statement, shortly after the decision was announced. Team USA finished second to the Russians in the team figure skating competition, which Valieva shined in.
“We are disappointed by the message this decision sends,” USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland said. “It is the collective responsibility of the entire Olympic community to protect the integrity of sport and to hold our athletes, coaches and all involved to the highest of standards.
“Athletes have the right to know they are competing on a level playing field. Unfortunately, today that right is being denied. This appears to be another chapter in the systemic and pervasive disregard for clean sport by Russia.”
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Former Team USA stars Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir, two of figure skating’s most prominent voices thanks to their roles as analysts for NBC, strongly denounced the CAS decision allowing Valieva to compete during an on-air hit Monday.
“I strongly disagree with this decision… Clean sport is the only thing that matters at an Olympic Games,” Lipinski, the 1998 gold medalist, said. “What we love about an Olympic Games is that we get to marvel at humans pushing athletic limits and doing the impossible but with one caveat, to do it fairly and cleanly.”
Weir was perhaps even more forceful in his rebuke.
“I have to condemn this decision with every ounce of my soul. The Olympics has to be clean or it’s not fair. If you won’t play fair then you can’t play,” Weir said. “It doesn’t matter how old you are or the timing of when the test results have come in, you have to be responsible for what happens to your body to compete at the Olympics.
“This is a slap in the face to the Olympic Games, to our sport and to every athlete that has ever competed at the Olympics clean. It’s hard to make it to the Olympics and anybody that will try to find the easy way out is in the wrong and should not be able to compete at the Olympics.”
Valieva tested positive for trimetazidine on Christmas Day, but the results were not reported until Feb. 8, following competition but prior to medals being awarded for the team event. She was provisionally suspended by RUSADA. but her suspension was then waived by RUSADA. The IOC appealed that decision, leading to Monday’s ruling in Valieva’s favor by the CAS.
Ashley Wagner, a 2014 Olympic bronze medalist in the team event, said the ruling “will leave a permanent scar on this sport.”
“At this point, I feel numb,” she tweeted. “You have athletes that are competing under two different systems, and we saw that today. THAT is not fair, raise the age minimum so we can all play on the same terms. This is not the call.”
She continued: “Actually, I’m not numb, I’m shocked, disappointed, ashamed and furious. This makes a mockery of clean competition and underlines the idea that if you’re under 18, skating clean means something different. So unfair to the clean athletes of this event, and this Olympics.”
Adam Rippon, who won a 2018 Olympic bronze medalist in the team event and currently coaches 2022 Olympian Mariah Bell, said Valieva “shouldn’t be allowed to compete.”
“I am so angry,” he tweeted. “The ladies event tomorrow is a complete joke. It’s not a real competition and it most likely won’t even have a medal ceremony. So many Olympic experiences stolen from clean athletes who got here without the help of performance enhancing drugs. What a shame.”
South Korea’s Kim Yuna, the 2010 Olympic champion, shared a statement on Instagram: “Athlete who violates doping cannot compete in the game. This principle must be observed without exception. All players’ efforts and dreams are equally precious.”
