GENEVA — Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva was disqualified from the 2022 Olympics on Monday, almost two years after the teenager's doping case caused turmoil at the Beijing Games.
The verdict from the Court of Arbitration for Sport means the Russians are set to be stripped of the gold medal in figure skating's team event. The United States finished second and is set to be named Olympic champion instead.
The International Olympic Committee decided not to present any medals for the event in Beijing, where the then-15-year-old Valieva was the star performer hours before her positive test for a banned heart medicine was revealed.
FILE - Kamila Valieva, of the Russian Olympic Committee, competes in the women's team free skate program during the figure skating competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Monday, Feb. 7, 2022, in Beijing. Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva has been disqualified from the 2022 Beijing Olympics. The verdict from the Court of Arbitration for Sport comes almost two years after Valieva's doping case caused turmoil at the Beijing Games. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko, File)
CAS said it upheld appeals led by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which asked the court to disqualify Valieva from the Olympics and ban her. A Russian sports tribunal had cleared her of any blame.
The CAS judges banned her for four years, through December 2025 — about seven weeks before the next Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.
The U.S. team took silver in Beijing and should be upgraded to gold. Japan took bronze and Canada placed fourth.
The IOC is responsible for reallocating medals and its executive board is next scheduled to meet in March.
FILE - Kamila Valieva, of the Russian Olympic Committee, competes in the women's team free skate program during the figure skating competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Monday, Feb. 7, 2022, in Beijing. Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva has been disqualified from the 2022 Beijing Olympics. The verdict from the Court of Arbitration for Sport comes almost two years after Valieva's doping case caused turmoil at the Beijing Games. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)
Valieva's legal team said it is reviewing the CAS decision before deciding whether to appeal to the Swiss supreme court, lawyer Andrea Pinna said in a statement. Pinna, who is based in Paris, led the skater's defense at the appeal hearings in September and November.
Appeals to the Swiss supreme court can be made on narrow procedural grounds, not the merits of the case.
Valieva's lawyers had argued she was contaminated by traces of the trimetazidine medication they said her grandfather used.
"Having carefully considered all the evidence put before it," the court said in a statement, "the CAS panel concluded that Ms. Valieva was not able to establish, on the balance of probabilities and on the basis of the evidence before the Panel, that she had not committed the (doping violation) intentionally."
The judges decided that, according to Russian anti-doping rules, Valieva could not benefit from having been a minor at the time of the positive test.
There was "no basis under the rules to treat them any differently from an adult athlete," said the court, which did not publish its detailed verdict pending a review of confidentiality issues.
The case provoked legal chaos at the Beijing Olympics because Valieva's sample, taken six weeks earlier at the Russian national championships, was not notified by a laboratory in Sweden until hours after she competed in the team event on Feb. 7, 2022.
Valieva continued to skate at the Olympics after rulings by a Russian tribunal and a separate CAS panel did not hold her responsible as a minor.
The intense scrutiny on Valieva led to an error-filled skate in the individual event, where she had been favored for gold but dropped to fourth place.
FILE - Kamila Valieva, of the Russian Olympic Committee, reacts in the women's team free skate program during the figure skating competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Monday, Feb. 7, 2022, in Beijing. Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva has been disqualified from the 2022 Beijing Olympics. The verdict from the Court of Arbitration for Sport comes almost two years after Valieva's doping case caused turmoil at the Beijing Games. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)
The drama continued when she left the ice. The reaction of her coach, Eteri Tutberidze, was fiercely criticized by skating experts and International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.
Bach said in Beijing one day later he had been "very, very disturbed" to watch the "tremendous coldness" of Valieva's entourage.
The case came to CAS to challenge a Russian anti-doping tribunal verdict in late 2022 that Valieva was not at fault. That ruling suggested disqualifying her only from the national championships and letting her keep her Olympic results and gold medal.
WADA asked CAS to impose a four-year ban and to disqualify Valieva from the Olympics. The International Skating Union requested a two-year ban and disqualification.
Valieva, who turns 18 in April, has not competed internationally since the Beijing Olympics.
Four days after the closing ceremony, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and five days after that, the International Skating Union banned Russian skaters from its events. That ban is still in place.
Since the Olympics, Valieva has skated on an expanded Russian national competition circuit and in various TV events and ice shows. She is no longer the near-unbeatable skater she appeared to be before the Beijing Olympics and has twice been beaten at the Russian nationals by younger skaters from the same training group under Tutberidze.
Although scores at nationals are often inflated, Valieva's 237.99 points — third at the Russia championships — would have been the best in the world by more than 10 points this season.
When an athlete 16 or younger tests positive for a banned substance, international rules require an investigation of their entourage. Both the Russian anti-doping body and WADA were expected to look into the case but neither has published any findings and there is no indication anyone else is facing anti-doping charges in the case.
American ice dancer Evan Bates said this past weekend at the national championships getting a team medal with partner partner Madison Chock will be particularly meaningful to them.
"I say, you know, we're the only two athletes from the Beijing team that are still competing — every single one of the rest of us has moved on," Bates said. "I think two years is too long that it's taken for this decision to be made. We're just looking forward to getting some closure after a long waiting period."
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AP Sports Writers Dave Skretta in Kansas City and James Ellingworth in Duesseldorf, Germany, contributed to this report.
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One year out, here are 8 athletes to watch in the 2024 Paris Olympics
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SIMONE BILES: Biles will be 27 by the time the Paris Games open, which is considered retirement age for most American female gymnasts. But Biles has been redefining what's possible ever since she burst onto the scene 10 years ago. Her game-changing legacy included the decision to exit the competition at the Tokyo Olympics two years ago, conceding her mental health was not where it needed to be to risk her life in pursuit of an Olympic gold medal. Over the last two years, Biles took time off and got married. She recently committed to a comeback, and her first competition on that road is set for Aug. 5. That and a few other meets this year will give the world a sense of where Biles stands, but if she makes the Olympic team, she will go in as its biggest star.
Sky Brown, skateboarding
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SKY BROWN: When Brown won a bronze medal in skateboarding in Tokyo at age 13, she was exactly what the Olympics were looking for in their long-running effort to reshape their image for a new generation. In 2024, the Japanese-born prodigy, who competes for Britain, will try to take her game(s) to an entirely new level. The Summer Games' action-sports icon will also try to qualify in surfing, an event that will be held more than 9,500 miles away in Tahiti. The schedule presumably lines up for Brown to try this intercontinental double, though waves can often dictate the pacing of a surf contest, which would be first up if Brown makes it. She recently told olympics.org that if she could pick a superpower, “I think teleporting would be real cool.” Given her goals for 2024, it would be very useful, as well.
Katie Ledecky, swimming
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Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, track
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An San, archery
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AN SAN: In Tokyo, South Korea's An San became the first archer to win three gold medals at the same games since 1904. She has won world championships and the World Cup finals since then, and finished first in the world ranking in 2022. South Korea has won every women's team event at the Olympics since the event was introduced for the Seoul Games in 1988.
Yuasa Ami, breakdancing
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YUASA AMI: Breakdancing, known officially as breaking, makes its debut in Paris, which puts Ami onto center stage. Japan's top breaker won the inaugural BC One title in 2018, the breaking World Championship title a year later and took gold at the World Games last year. “B-Girl Ami” got into hip-hop dancing as a kid, but saw breaking and immediately knew that was her thing. She was perfecting moves within a week of first trying them. “Winning a battle, of course, is so amazing, but at the same time, meeting people from all over the world has become an inspiration for me,” she said in a recent interview in Forbes. “These precious encounters and experiences with different dancers means so much to me.”
Rebeca Andrade, gymnastics
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REBECA ANDRADE: The Brazilian finished runner-up to America's Sunisa Lee in Tokyo and won the 2022 world all-around title in Liverpool, becoming the first world gymnastics champion from South America. Inspired by Brazil's great gymnast of the early 2000s, Daiane dos Santos, Andrade suffered through three major knee injuries in the lead-up to Tokyo — an experience that taught her to listen to her body more as she goes through the rigors of training. Andrade could very well go into Paris as the favorite to win the all-around.
Erriyon Knighton, track
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