Figure Skater Kamila Valieva Stripped of Neutral Athlete Status
The International Skating Union has revoked Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva's neutral athlete status, barring her from international competition again. Three other Russian skaters were also affected by the decision.
The International Skating Union (ISU) announced Thursday that it has revoked the neutral athlete status of Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, once again barring her from competing internationally. Valieva had returned to competition in January following a lengthy doping suspension.
Valieva was among 234 Russian and Belarusian athletes who had applied for neutral athlete status. Russian and Belarusian skaters have been banned from international competition since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but were permitted to compete in the 2026/2027 season provided they did so under a neutral flag.
To qualify for neutral status, athletes must meet three conditions: they must not belong to Russia's or Belarus's armed forces or security services, must not have taken part in the war against Ukraine, and must never have publicly voiced support for it. The ISU did not disclose which specific condition Valieva failed to meet, though her social media accounts reportedly include posts backing Russia's invasion.
The same decision stripped neutral status from Mark Kondratiuk, the 2022 European champion, as well as skaters Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin, whom the ISU said did not meet the required criteria.
Russian Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev said Thursday that all four skaters intend to challenge the ruling before the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne. He said Russia's Figure Skating Federation, together with the athletes, would soon file a formal claim against the ISU, arguing they had been unjustly denied the right to compete internationally.
Valieva returned to competition in January, four years after the doping scandal that overshadowed the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. At age 15, she made history as the first skater to land a quadruple jump at the Games and helped the Russian team win gold in the team event. It later emerged that she had tested positive for the banned heart medication trimetazidine after the December 2021 Russian championships, which she attributed to accidental contamination. Following several appeals, she was handed a four-year suspension retroactive to December 25, 2021.
