During the proceedings surrounding figure skater Kamila Valieva, Sergei Ilyukov, a WADA expert who formerly served on the supervisory board of RUSADA and works as a sports physician who left Russia because of the Ukraine situation, was one of the witnesses. Reports from the hearing reflect Ilyukov’s perspective on the case and the broader doping controversy in the sport.
Valieva received a four-year ban from the Court of Arbitration for Sport, a decision that was affirmed as compliant with the applicable anti-doping rules. Ilyukov stated that the tribunal’s ruling aligned with his own professional views and expectations for how such violations should be handled within international sport.
The CAS ruling, issued on January 29, set the ban to take effect retroactively from December 2021. The decision marked a significant moment in the ongoing pursuit of clean competition in ice skating and influenced the competitive results for the team after the ban took effect.
At the 2022 Olympic Games, Valieva was part of Russia’s national team and helped secure the team event title, while she herself finished fourth in the individual competition. Following Valieva’s disqualification, the International Skating Union reassessed the team standings, awarding third place to Russia in the team event, with the United States earning gold in the team competition and Japan taking silver in the individual event. These adjustments illustrate how doping cases can reshape Olympic outcomes while preserving the broader medal picture for Russia in that edition of the Games.
In a related development, Olympic champion Anna Shcherbakova reportedly changed her social media connections, unfollowing Eteri Tutberidze, a prominent coach within the sport. This move added another layer to the public discourse around coaching, training methods, and the broader dynamics of elite figure skating during the post-Olympic period.