YEKATERINBURG, February 18. /TASS/. Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin called on the international sports society to render support to Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva helping her to recover after the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

"I call on everyone to render support to Kamila [Valieva]," Matytsin told journalists. "First of all, to help her to recover and to show her that as of today she is the world’s best figure skater. This is a call addressed not only to the Russian sports society but the global sports society on the whole."

Russian figure skating star Valieva was in the lead after the short program at the 2022 Olympics boasting 82.16 points on February 15, but she made a couple of mistakes during the free skate program on Thursday earning 141.93 points, which left her with the final score of 224.09 in the 4th place.

Valieva is the youngest participant of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games at the age of 15. The figure skater is trained by Russia’s merited coach Eteri Tutberidze and she is the reigning champion of the European and Russian championships. She holds the World Records in ladies singles short program (90.45 points), in ladies’ free skate program (185.29 points) and in the combined result of two programs in ladies’ competitions (272.71 points).

Valieva’s suspected doping case

On February 14, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) turned down an appeal filed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Skating Union (ISU) against the decision of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) to lift a temporary suspension of Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva.

The International Testing Agency announced on February 11 that Valieva’s doping sample, collected on December 25, 2021 during the Russian Figure Skating Championships in St. Petersburg, returned a positive result for a banned substance, trimetazidine. This triggered the postponement of the awarding ceremony of the 2022 Olympic team competition, won by Russia.

RUSADA imposed a provisional suspension on Valieva on February 8, but the Russian athlete submitted an appeal and it was satisfied the following day. The previous decision on the provisional suspension was cancelled by the RUSADA Disciplinary Committee.

However, the ISU, IOC and WADA filed their appeals later with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in order to overturn the previous decision of the RUSADA Disciplinary Committee.

USA Today daily reported on February 16 citing IOC (the International Olympic Committee) member Denis Oswald as saying that trimetazidine entered her body system through a medication prescribed for her grandfather.