The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said Tuesday it sent the Beijing Olympics case of teenage figure skater Kamila Valiyeva to sport’s highest court, accusing Russian officials of making “no progress” toward resolving it.
Under a rarely used power, WADA can take cases out of national agencies’ hands and send them direct to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) if it can show that they are not being resolved in a “timely” manner, according to international anti-doping rules.
The Russian anti-doping agency (RUSADA) had indicated last month it was preparing to hold a hearing but wouldn’t make the verdict public because Valiyeva was only 15 at the time she tested positive.
“Despite putting RUSADA under formal notice to resolve the Kamila Valieva case promptly, no progress was made. Therefore, I can confirm WADA has now officially referred it directly to the Court of Arbitration for Sport,” WADA president Witold Banka wrote on Twitter.
WADA warned Russian officials last month to speed up their investigation, which could result in the United States team being upgraded from silver to gold medals.
A case at the sports court in Lausanne, Switzerland, is still likely to take several months to process.
A previous CAS panel of judges allowed Valiyeva to compete in the women’s individual event in Beijing even under suspicion of doping.
Valiyeva won Olympic gold in the team competition before finding out she tested positive for a banned substance before the Beijing Games at a Russian competition in December 2020. The coronavirus pandemic caused delays at the lab tasked with testing the sample and it was only reported once Valiyeva was at the Olympics.
She appealed a provisional suspension and was allowed to skate in the women’s individual event and placed fourth. While anti-doping procedures continued in Russia, Valiyeva has been skating in national competitions.
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Allison Schmitt, a 10-time Olympic medalist, knew since college that she wanted to teach upon transitioning from full-time swimming. Maybe have a kindergarten, first grade or second grade classroom with 20 to 30 kids.
Schmitt, a 32-year-old whose last race was at her fourth Olympics in Tokyo, had left hip surgery in September. She will have right hip surgery in December. She hasn’t officially retired, but she doesn’t have any upcoming competition plans.
Instead, she will get her master’s degree in social work at Arizona State next spring.
Schmitt had not imagined she would become this kind of teacher, using a platform earned through all those laps in the pool to share her mental health journey with the goal to help others.
She was a panelist this week at “Mental Wellness and The Student-Athlete,” an event through the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s youth sport outreach program, TrueSport.
Seven years ago, Schmitt began sharing her struggles, specifically depression, that dated to 2011. She was motivated to speak publicly after her cousin April Bocian died by suicide in May 2015 at age 17. Bocian was a promising basketball player, and Schmitt related to her.
“I knew her story wasn’t over,” Schmitt said Wednesday. “And even though she wasn’t on Earth to share her story, that I can share that story. And I could use my experience as well to share my story so that people don’t feel alone.”
Schmitt texted her agent at the funeral that she wanted to get involved in the mental health space. Leading up to the 2016 Rio Games, she shared her experiences across media.
“I avoided every public speaking class [in school] to the point where I’d be like sweaty hands and breathing into a paper bag, like did not want to speak in front of people,” she said. “Now I’m so comfortable with it because I’m so passionate about mental health and sharing that story that it comes a lot easier to me, and I actually really enjoy it.”
Schmitt joked that whether she will swim competitively again is “the question of the century right now.”
Her 2012 Olympic 200m freestyle victory was epic — an American record time that still stands, fending off Katie Ledecky‘s best efforts over the last decade. She came back from not qualifying for the world championships in 2013 and 2015 to win two Olympic relay medals in 2016. In 2018, she came out of a two-year quasi-retirement and later made the Tokyo Olympic team, winning another pair of relay medals.
“I don’t have plans on competing, but right now I’m finishing school,” she said. “I’m passionate about that.
“I still want to be a teacher, but I feel like my sense of teacher is broader now. Yes, I can still go teach a room of 25 kids and impact their lives, but I feel like, now, my calling is more of a teacher in the mental health field.”
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Russia and Belarus’ Paralympic committees were banned by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), likely into next fall.
Russia and Belarus cannot enter athletes into World Para Sport events during the suspension. The IPC has not said whether Russia and Belarus athletes could compete separate from their national committees, such as neutral competitors, if and when any other suspension for the war in Ukraine is lifted.
The IPC said that the eligibility of Russia and Belarus for the 2024 Paris Paralympics is a decision for the next general assembly, likely in the fourth quarter of 2023.
At an extraordinary general assembly Wednesday, IPC members voted to suspend Russia and Belarus’ Paralympic committees for the same reason: “due to its inability to comply with membership obligations under the IPC Constitution.”
The vote for Russia was 64 to 39 with 16 abstentions. The vote for Belarus was 54 to 45 with 18 abstentions.
“I want us to live in a world where sport unites the world in peaceful competition, enabling athletes to compete against their rivals to the best of their abilities in a safe and secure environment,” IPC President Andrew Parsons said. “The situation that the world of sport faces right now is highly charged and complex. I hope and pray that the conflict in Ukraine ends as soon as possible, that peace is secured, and that no more innocent lives are lost or impacted.”
They can appeal. Barring a successful appeal, the suspensions can only be lifted at an IPC general assembly, the next slated for late 2023.
Athletes from Russia and Belarus were barred from last March’s Paralympic Winter Games the day before the Opening Ceremony in a reversal from a decision 20 hours earlier that would have allowed Russians and Belarusians to compete as neutrals without their national flags, symbols and anthems.
The reasoning was that ensuring safety at the athletes’ village was becoming untenable, and athletes from many other nations vowed to not compete if Russia and Belarus athletes remained in the Games.
Russia invaded Ukraine the week before those Paralympics began.
Russian athletes competed at the Tokyo Paralympics under the Russian Paralympic Committee flag and without the national anthem as part of sanctions for the nation’s doping violations. They finished third in total medals, behind China and Great Britain and ahead of the U.S.
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