MOSCOW, February 18. /TASS/. The Intelligence and Investigations (I&I) Department of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) will join the inquiry into a possible doping violation by Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, but the details of its participation will not be revealed to the public at the moment, the agency has told TASS.
"[Russian anti-doping body] RUSADA has already indicated it has begun investigating the athlete’s support personnel, as it is bound to do under the terms of the World Anti-Doping Code when a minor is involved in an anti-doping case," a WADA spokesperson said. "In addition, WADA’s independent Intelligence and Investigations Department will look into it."
"WADA I&I is independent so I do not have any more details than that at this stage," he said, when asked whether the probe will be conducted by WADA independently, or in cooperation with RUSADA.
On February 7, Russian figure skaters Kamila Valieva, Mark Kondratyuk, Anastasia Mishina, Alexander Gallyamov, Viktoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov won the gold in the figure skating team event at the Beijing Olympic Games. The International Testing Agency announced on February 11 that the award ceremony for the event had been postponed due to a positive doping test that Valieva, 15, did on December 25. The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) imposed a temporary suspension on Valieva, which she successfully appealed the following day. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Skating Union (ISU) filed appeals against this decision but the Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected them on February 14. The investigation of the doping case continues.
On Thursday, Valieva, who was in the lead after the short program, took the fourth place (224.09). Team ROC figure skater Anna Shcherbakova won gold in women’s singles event, scoring 255.95 points. Her teammate Alexandra Trusova bagged the silver with 251.73 points. Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto came in third (233.13).