Defense Presents “Strawberry” Explanation for Kamila Valijeva’s Suspension

In an unexpected twist, details have emerged concerning the doping case of Kamila Valieva, a 17-year-old Russian figure skater who had been banned for a year, according to reports by the news agency AP.

The International Court of Arbitration for Sport, also known as CAS, released a comprehensive 129-page document on Wednesday. This document details the scandal surrounding Valieva’s doping incident, which occurred just before the Beijing Winter Olympics in February 2022 when she was only 15 years old.

An interesting note from the document is the mention of the term “strawberry” a total of 43 times. The term “strawberry dessert” is part of Valieva’s defense’s explanation as to how the prohibited substance, trimetazidine, found its way into Valieva’s system.

The defense argues that the source of the substance was Valieva’s grandfather’s heart medication. They proposed two potential scenarios: either the grandfather accidentally dropped a tablet of the medicine into the dessert, or fragments of the crushed tablet remained on the cutting board used in preparing the dessert.

However, this explanation was not accepted.

The judges noted that the defense’s account was not sufficiently clear to be considered the most probable alternative.

It was revealed that Valieva visited her grandfather days before the Russian national competition in December 2021, where she provided a doping sample that later tested positive.

Previously, another explanation from Valieva came to light, suggesting that she inadvertently drank from the same water glass as her grandfather, which led to the forbidden substance entering her body.

The figure skater was caught using banned substances just before the Beijing Olympics when the results from her December doping test were finalized. Despite this, she was permitted to compete in individual events at the Olympics.

Valieva, who was a favorite to win, stumbled twice during her free program and did not receive any medals.

Valieva also participated in the team figure skating competition for Russia. The International Skating Union (ISU) decided to redistribute the skating medals for the 2022 Olympics just a week ago. As a result, Russia, which initially won gold, was demoted to third place after the ISU deducted points from Valieva’s performance.

Just a week ago, Valieva received a four-year ban due to her doping violation. This ban was imposed retroactively from December 25, 2021.