The date is known. Finally. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) announced in a press release that the hearing in the Kamila Valieva case would be held for three days at the very end of September. It will begin Tuesday September 26 with a brief introductory statement from each party, followed by the hearing of factual witnesses. The next day will be devoted to hearing the expert witnesses. The final day, Thursday September 28, will be occupied by the conclusions and rebuttals of the different 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 rejected earlier this month a request filed by the American figure skating team to obtain the presence of an observer. The trio of CAS arbitrators will be made up of a president, James Drake (United Kingdom and Australia), and two other jurists, American lawyer Jeffrey Mishkin and French law professor Mathieu Maisonneuve.
