(Reuters) – Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva plans to resume her competitive career after she serves out the four-year ban imposed for failing a drugs test.
Valieva, now 18, told Russian news agencies, that she wants to compete again as she will still be young enough to do so when her ban ends at the end of 2025.
“Of course, I am thinking about this. It is not the end,My last appearance at the Russian championship was not my best. And it is probably stupid to abandon a sports career at my age,” she was quoted as saying.
Valieva said she was “gradually coming into form”.
“I am trying at first to gain confidence about the elements I had last season — a triple toe loop and double Axel. With greater confidence, I will bring in more difficult content as I won’t be in competition for more or less a year and a half.”
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) imposed a four-year ban on Valieva earlier this year, with the penalty backdated to when she tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine, which prevents angina attacks, at the Russian national championships in December 2021.
That punishment meant the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) were stripped of the gold medal in the team event at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games nearly two years after the competition.
Valieva’s team has said the positive test could have been due to a mix-up with her grandfather’s heart medication. The Kremlin dismissed the ruling as politically motivated.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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