IOC cancels Beijing 2022 figure skating awards ceremony
- Written by Prensa Latina
- Published in Sports
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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) determined not to award figure skating medals at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, because the Russian Kamila Valieva is among the winners and her case continues open.
The executive board of this organization pointed out that it will not proceed with the team category awards, already carried out, nor in the upcoming women´s individual events of the sport, if the young woman manages to position herself among the finalists.
The IOC emphasized that “it would not be appropriate to hold the medal ceremony for the team figure skating event” because “it would include an athlete who, on the one hand, has a positive ´A´ sample, but whose anti-doping rule violation, on the other hand, has not yet been established.”
Also, it pledged to organize “dignified” awards, once the Valieva trial is concluded.
The International Testing Agency (ITA), which made the demand on behalf of the IOC and the other agencies, recognized the court decision to keep the adolescent in competition.
But he indicated that “proceedings on the alleged anti-doping rule violation, including the athlete’s right to request analysis of the ‘B’ sample, will be carried out by the Rusada (Russian Anti-Doping Agency) in due course.”
According to the ITA, the presence of trimetazidine was detected in the test performed on the teenager on December 25, 2021, during a championship in St. Petersburg. The process was developed by a laboratory in Stockholm (Sweden), accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
