Rusada to ask CAS to keep part of decision on figure skater Valieva confidential

MOSCOW. Feb 2 (Interfax) - The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada) will request the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to keep the operative part of its decision on the case of Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva confidential, the Rusada press service told journalists on Friday.

"We have received the full text of the decision, and our lawyers are studying it. It's highly likely that we'll ask the CAS to keep the decision's operative part confidential," it said.

Rusada has done all it could to keep information concerning the protected person's case confidential, it said.

The CAS ruled on January 29 to find Valieva to have committed an anti-doping rule violation and sanctioned her with a four-year period of ineligibility commencing on December 25, 2021. The CAS left a decision on awarding medals in the figure skating team event in the 2022 Winter Olympics to the discretion of the International Skating Union (ISU).

The ISU announced the next day that it stripped Team Russia of its gold medals in the figure skating team event in the 2022 Winter Olympics due to Valieva's disqualification for an anti-doping rule violation.

The Russian Olympic Committee said it would go to the CAS to challenge the ISU's decision on taking the 2022 Winter Olympics gold away from Team Russia.

The International Testing Agency (ITA) said on February 11, 2022 that a sample collected from Valieva for testing on December 25, 2021 showed the presence of a banned substance. By that moment, Valieva had won the gold in the figure skating team event in the Beijing Olympics. The CAS admitted Valieva to compete in the women's single event, where she came in fourth. The gold medals won in the team event were left in Team Russia's possession at the time, although the medal ceremony was called off. Rusada's Disciplinary Committee later found Valieva not in breach of anti-doping rules.