Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva given 56 medications and supplements across two years, reveals report

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has revealed that banned Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva was given 56 medications, nutritional supplements, and dietary additives. As per the CAS report, those were given to her across two years from January 2020 to December 2021 when she was aged 13-15. None of these substances, however, are on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) prohibited list. Valieva, aged 17, was slapped with a four-year ban for doping by CAS in January after she tested positive for the banned heart medication trimetazidine in December 2021. This came just before the 2022 Winter Olympics.

CAS has now released a report that has details of all the medications and supplements, which were prescribed specifically by Dr. Adamov, Dr. Shumakov, and Dr. Shvetskiy of the Russian Federal Medical and Biological Agency (FMBA).

The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) also carried out an investigation where it was determined that the teenager had “no fault or negligence” for the failed test on December 25, 2021. However, CAS upheld an appeal by WADA in January. WADA responded by stating, “The doping of children is unforgivable.”

Olivier Niggli, WADA’s director-general, was quoted as saying by BBC, “It is clear that the taste of this case is very unpleasant when you see that there was a choice made to sacrifice an athlete rather than indicating who actually helped her dope.”

Valieva shot to fame when she became the first female skater to successfully execute a quadruple jump at a Winter Olympics. Even though Russia got gold in the team figure skating event on February 7, 2022, it was revealed four days later that Valieva had failed a drug test before the Games.

She was subsequently banned and this was retroactively applied to the date of the failed test. Valieva said that it could have been due to a strawberry dessert that was prepared by her grandfather on the same cutting board he used to crush his pills.

Drawing lessons from this episode, WADA announced that they are planning to update their anti-doping regulations before the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy and these new rules will give more authority to investigate athlete entourages.