Kamila Valieva remains eligible to compete at worlds next month. Will she?

Kamiela Valieva reacts after her poor free skate in women’s singles at the 2022 Winter Olympics. (Getty)

 As of now, Kamila Valieva is eligible to compete at the World Figure Skating Championships in late March.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport decision that allowed Valieva to compete at the 2022 Winter Olympics despite her ongoing doping case remains in force for all events, according to Travis Tygart, chief executive of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

“While she is free to compete in all competitions, she could voluntarily step aside,” Tygart said in a text message.  “Or WADA (the World Anti-Doping Agency) and the Russians should expedite her case to ensure a fair outcome prior to the World Championships and to avoid another media firestorm that neither she nor her competitors should have to endure.”

Even expedited action might not resolve Valieva’s case before Monday’s athlete entry deadline for the World Championships in Montpellier, France.  The competition begins March 23.

Asked via email when there would be an announcement of the Russian team for worlds, Russian Figure Skating Federation spokesperson Olga Ermolina replied by citing the deadline.

Valieva, 15, was heavily favored to take the women’s singles title in Beijing.  She won the short program last Tuesday but came undone in the free skate Thursday, fell twice and finished fourth.

Devastated by her poor performance, a tearful Valieva got little apparent comfort after she finished from her coach, Eteri Tutberidze, whose initial reaction – as caught on live television - was to ask why Valieva had given up after a mistake on her second jump.

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach took the very unexpected step of criticizing the way her “close entourage” handled Valieva.

"When I afterwards saw how she was received by her close entourage ... it was chilling to see this," Bach said at a press conference the day after the free skate.

A Kremlin spokesman reacted a few hours later by saying of Bach, "He doesn’t like the harshness of our coaches but everybody knows that the harshness of a coach in high-level sport is key for their athletes to achieve victories.”

This week, Valieva posted a thank you message to Tutberidze and the rest of her coaching team on her official Instagram account.  There was also video posted of her training again in Moscow after her return from China.

“Hopefully, she is getting support and any help she may need, as no young person should have to endure what she has gone through,” Tygart wrote.

The case began when the Russian Anti-Doping Agency took a urine sample from Valieva Dec. 25 at the Russian Figure Skating Championships in St. Petersburg.

The sample contained the banned substance trimetazidine, a drug generally used to treat elderly patients with coronary artery disease.  In an athlete, the drug could enhance endurance.

Documentation submitted to the CAS panel that adjudicated her Olympic eligibility revealed her sample also contained evidence of two other substances used for heart treatment, neither of which is on the WADA banned list.

Because the Russian anti-doping lab has lost its accreditation as a result of complicity in helping cover up what a WADA-commissioned investigation called a state-sponsored doping program, Valieva’s sample was sent to Stockholm, Sweden for testing.

The test results did not reach RUSADA until Feb. 8, a day after Valieva had helped Russia finish first in the Olympic team event.  That was about twice as long as the mandated reporting time for such tests (20 days after receipt of the sample).  According to RUSADA, the delay owed to Covid-related staffing shortages at the Stockholm lab.

RUSADA gave Valieva the provisional suspension required after a doping positive.   RUSADA’s disciplinary commission lifted the suspension.  That led the to an appeal by the IOC, WADA and the ISU to reinstate the suspension, which the CAS panel denied.

(Curiously, the IOC did not ask for an immediate reinstatement of the suspension, while WADA and the ISU did.)

The decision to let Valieva skate provoked nearly universal dismay and outrage among in the figure skating and Olympic worlds.

What is her doping case situation now? Unless Valieva decides to accept the positive testing result and punishment that could be a reprimand rather than a suspension, the case may drag on for months. And she remains eligible to compete.

Meanwhile, the Olympic team event results carry an asterisk, and there will be no medal ceremony until Valieva’s doping case is resolved.  The same scenario would undoubtedly unfold if she were to win a medal at worlds.

Will the Russian Figure Skating Federation have what could politely be called the chutzpah to send Valieva to Montpellier, with the risk that another firestorm would occur, and this 15-year-old might be irreparably burned?

That would, less politely, be Russia giving the middle finger to the world.  Again.