RUSADA Launches Probe Into Figure Skater Valieva's Team Amid Doping Test Controversy

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) has launched an investigation into the team of figure skater Kamila Valieva amid controversy surrounding her doping test in late December, which came back positive earlier this week.

According to the agency, it has launched the investigation due to the fact that, among other reasons, the 15-year-old Valieva is a minor.

"The purpose of this investigation is to identify all the circumstances of a possible anti-doping rule violation in the interests of a person under protection [Valieva]," RUSADA said in a statement.

"As part of the Russian Figure Skating Championship in St. Petersburg (December 25, 2021), the athletes participating in the competition were tested. The analysis of doping samples was carried out at the Stockholm Anti-Doping Laboratory accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency. Information about the unfavourable result of the analysis of the athlete's sample was received by RAA RUSADA on 7 February 2022. According to the data sent by the laboratory to RUSADA, the reason for the delays in the analysis and reporting by the laboratory was the next wave of COVID-19, an increase in COVID cases among laboratory staff and quarantine rules," the statement reads.

The agency added that further details concerning the investigation will be published on its official website in due course.

On 8 February, the International Testing Agency (ITA) said "a sample from the athlete was collected under the testing authority of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) on 25 December 2021 during the 2022 Russian Figure Skating Championships in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The WADA-accredited laboratory of Stockholm, Sweden, reported that the sample had returned an Adverse Analytical Finding (AAF) for the non-specified prohibited substance trimetazidine," which is a banned heart medication.

Kamila Valieva is the current Russian and European champion in figure skating. She holds world records in both short and free programmes. During her free programme at the Beijing Olympic Games, she performed a quadruple salchow, as well as a quadruple toe-loop with a combination with triple toe-loop, earning 178.92 points and becoming the first female figure skater in history to land a quad jump at the Olympics.