About-face in Russia. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) announced last weekend that it had received an appeal from the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) in the case of skater Kamila Valieva. Surprise: the appeal concerns the decision taken by RUSADA's own disciplinary tribunal not to sanction the young Russian skater, convicted of doping in December 2021 at the Russian championships, but authorized to compete less than two months later at the Olympic Games. Beijing winter 2022. Difficult to understand. RUSADA's appeal follows those filed a few days earlier by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Skating Union (ISU). The three parties are demanding the same thing: a sanction against Kamila Valieva, cleared last year by the disciplinary tribunal of the Russian anti-doping agency, a body independent of RUSADA, which had considered that the young skater had not committed “ no fault or negligence. » No court date has yet been set. But the affair promises to be quite unprecedented. In fact, the CAS has never been referred to the CAS by RUSADA for a case concerning a Russian athlete and a Russian disciplinary body.
