Kamila Valieva, the Russian skater, has had her titles revoked following a four-year ban for doping.

 The court of arbitration for sport has imposed a four-year ban on Kamila Valieva, the Russian figure skater whose positive doping test garnered widespread attention during the 2022 Winter Olympics when she was just 15 years old. Following the ruling, all of Valieva's results achieved after her failed test on December 25, 2021, have been officially removed from the record books.

Despite this decision, the court has not immediately stripped the Russians, led by Valieva, of their gold medal in the team event. In its statement explaining the ruling, Cas clarified that the authority to make such a decision was not within the scope of the arbitration procedure and would need to be addressed by the relevant sports organizations.

However, it appears highly likely that the International Skating Union will strip the Russian team of their medal, elevating the USA team to the gold position.

During the Olympic team event, Valieva made history as the first woman to successfully execute a quadruple jump, contributing to the Russian Olympic Committee's gold win. However, a day later, it was revealed that she had tested positive for trimetazidine (TMZ), a medication designed to prevent angina, at the Russian national championships in December 2021, weeks prior to the Games.

The delay in testing her sample on Christmas Day was attributed to a Covid outbreak among workers at a doping laboratory in Sweden. When the news surfaced, it triggered a media frenzy that overshadowed the Winter Olympics.

While in Beijing, Valieva's legal team argued that her positive drug test might have resulted from a contaminated glass of water containing traces of her grandfather's heart medication. Despite days of legal disputes, Cas eventually permitted her to continue competing. However, under intense scrutiny, she faced setbacks, falling twice in the individual figure skating and finishing fourth.

Nearly two years of legal proceedings followed before Cas ultimately announced its decision on Monday.

In its statement, Cas declared, "Ms. Valieva did not contest liability, acknowledging that, due to the presence of TMZ in her sample, she had committed an anti-doping rule violation (ADRV). The Cas panel was tasked with determining what sanctions, if any, should be imposed on Ms. Valieva.

"Upon thorough consideration of all the presented evidence, the Cas panel concluded that Ms. Valieva could not establish, on the balance of probabilities and based on the evidence before the panel, that she had not intentionally committed the ADRV.

"Consequently, as it was determined that there was no room for the exercise of discretion to reduce the period of ineligibility, the panel imposed a four-year period of ineligibility.

"The Cas panel also mandated the disqualification of all competitive results achieved by Ms. Valieva from December 25, 2021, with all ensuing consequences, including the forfeiture of any titles, awards, medals, profits, prizes, and appearance money."

"The repercussions associated with the retroactive disqualification of Ms. Valieva from past events, including the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, were not addressed within the scope of this arbitration procedure and will need to be scrutinized by the relevant sports organizations."

The decision received approval from Travis Tygart, the chief executive of the US Anti-Doping Agency, who stated, "Today’s decision in the Valieva case has been a long time coming. It’s imperative that the ISU immediately handles the technical processes needed to reallocate the medals accordingly.

“As we know, Russia has hijacked the Games since 2014 where it was caught red-handed running a state-sponsored doping scheme that robbed clean athletes around the world. Here, yet again, those entrusted to protect the Games and athletes have allowed Russia to jeopardise the wellbeing of its own athletes while robbing clean athletes and fans of an honest, fair, and authentic Olympic competition.

“Now, we must demand that the handling of this entire tragedy be reviewed to ensure that any necessary reforms are implemented to ensure no athlete has to endure this ever again.”