The date is known. At long last. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has announced in a press release that the hearing in the Kamila Valieva case will take place over three days at the very end of September. It will begin on Tuesday September 26 with a brief opening statement by each party, followed by the hearing of factual witnesses. The following day will be devoted to the hearing of expert witnesses. The final day, Thursday September 28, will be taken up with submissions and rebuttals from the various parties, namely Kamila Valieva, the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), WADA and the International Skating Union (ISU). The hearing will be held at the CAS headquarters in Lausanne, but certain experts, parties and witnesses will be heard by videoconference, including Kamila Valieva and representatives of RUSADA. The hearings will take place behind closed doors, the CAS having earlier this month rejected a request by the US figure skating team for the presence of an observer. The CAS trio of arbitrators will be made up of a chairman, James Drake (UK and Australia), and two other jurists, American lawyer Jeffrey Mishkin and French law professor Mathieu Maisonneuve.
