PARIS: Russia’s attempt to be restored to the gold medal position in team figure skating at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics has been rejected, sport’s top court said on Thursday.

The Russians had appealed against the decision to strip them of the gold that they won largely thanks to the points scored by Kamila Valieva, 15, who is now serving a four-year ban for doping.

Russia secured gold after Valieva became the first woman to land a quadruple jump in Olympic competition.

The next day she was told she had tested positive before the Games for trimetazidine, a drug banned for athletes. When her points were dedu­cted, Russia were relegated to bronze.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport said that an arbitration panel “deliberated and concluded that the results of Ms Valieva in the Olympic figure skating team event were correctly disqualified... and that the ROC (Russian) skating team could not be awarded the gold.”

The final podium has not been decided yet as CAS are del­i­bera­ting on an appeal from Can­ada, which wants the bronze.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2024