Kamila vvalieva reacts after skating during the women single skating free in Beijing 2022. GETTY IMAGES

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has rejected Russia's appeal to retain the team figure skating gold medal won at the Beijing 2022 Olympics, dismissing their attempt to salvage the victory.

That medal was won in part thanks to points scored by then 15-year-old Kamila Valieva, who is now serving a four-year ban for doping. Valieva was also the first woman to perform a quadruple jump in Olympic competition.

But the next day she was told she had tested positive before the Games for trimetazidine, a drug used to treat angina pectoris but banned for athletes. With those points deducted, Russia was relegated to the bronze medal.



The appeals filed by the Russian Olympic Committee, the Figure Skating Federation of Russia and Russian skaters Aleksandr Galliamov, Nikita Katsalapov, Mark Kondratiuk, Anastasia Mishina, Victoria Sinitsina and Valieva, the women that won that points.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport said a panel ‘deliberated and concluded that Ms Valieva's results in the Olympic team figure skating event were correctly disqualified ... and that the ROC (Russia) skating team could not receive the gold medal’.

The Russian Olympic Committee said it was ‘extremely disappointed’ by the CAS ruling, but added: ‘We were under no illusions about the outcome of this case, as well as in the cases of other claims or appeals filed by the Russian side in the last almost three years.’

The Cas studies another appel, separate, but related. It is filed by Canadian skaters Madeline Schizas, Piper Gilles, Paul Poirier, Kirsten Moore-Towers, Michael Marinaro, Eric Radford, Vanessa James and Roman Sadovsky, together with Skate Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) (collectively, the Canadian Appellants.



The Canadian Appellants also seek a ruling from CAS re-ranking the figure skating Team Event, as follows: United States of America (Gold); Japan (Silver); Canada (Bronze).  The second CAS Panel is now deliberating. It is not possible to indicate at this time when the second Panel’s decision will be issued.

Russian athletes, as well as athletes from Belarus, will be at the Paris Olympic Games only as neutral individual participants and with numerous restrictions: no flags and the medals won't be for their country.