(CNN) — Kamila Valieva, the Russian figure skater who is at the center of a doping controversy in December that was discovered at the Beijing Winter Olympics, had three substances that can be used to help the heart in her analysis sample, according to a report of New York Timeswhich cited evidence presented at a hearing on Sunday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Two of those substances, Hypoxen and the supplement L-carnitine, are not banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which regulates the use of drugs in international sport. Valieva declared both on a doping control form, according to a court request purportedly filed by WADA in a case raised after it emerged Valieva tested positive for a banned substance in December.
Kamila Valieva of the ROC team skates during the women’s singles competition in Beijing on Tuesday.
The London-based Dossier Center, an investigative website run by an exiled Russian businessman, posted part of WADA’s court request online and it was reviewed for CNN by Travis Tygart, head of the US Anti-Doping Agency ( USED). The Dossier Center did not release the doping control form or test report released in the case, and CNN has not reviewed them.
CNN contacted the CAS and the parties involved in Valieva’s arbitration hearing to confirm the validity of the judicial request published by the Dossier Center, but no response has yet been received. CNN also contacted the WADA-accredited laboratory in Sweden, which analyzed Valieva’s sample in December, for comment. Tygart, who is not involved in the investigation into the Russian figure skater, described the request published by the Dossier Center as “accurate and legitimate.”
The 15-year-old figure skater has been in the spotlight since it came to light that she tested positive for the banned heart drug. trimetazidine, which experts say can improve endurance. Valieva tried to blame the positive result on contamination from medication taken by her grandfather, an International Olympic Committee (IOC) official familiar with the CAS hearing said on Tuesday.
The presence of the additional substances raises further questions about the skater’s substance use, according to Tygart. USADA tried to ban Hypoxen in 2017 because of its performance-enhancing ability, but that ban was not implemented, Tygart told CNN.
“It raises a lot of questions that have not yet been resolved and what appears to be the case is a fairly deliberate attempt to use substances for performance-enhancing purposes,” Tygart said.
“The picture you paint is that you have a 15-year-old girl. Does she have the means and the knowledge and the financial resources to find and use two drugs, one of which is banned TMZ (Trimetazidine) and the other Hypoxen, [junto con] L-carnitine (a supplement), to increase endurance and reduce fatigue?” he noted.
According to the request published by the Dossier Center, Valieva’s mother testified in an interim hearing that the athlete took one of the substances, Hypoxen, “to treat ‘variations of the heart’.”
Supradyn, which can be used as a supplement to boost immunity, was also listed on Valieva’s doping control form, according to the application.
Valieva’s positive result for trimetazidine, although taken in December, was not tested and reported to Russia’s anti-doping agency until February, leading to Valieva’s suspension on February 8, a day after she helped propel the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) to win the gold medal in the team figure skating event.
But the skater was reinstated after an appeal, and on Monday the CAS allowed her to compete in the Olympics, citing specific provisions related to her status as a protected minor, while investigations into any doping violations by Valieva and the adults continue. responsible for their training.
An emotional Valieva came out in first place after Tuesday’s women’s singles short program. This Thursday she will compete in the second part of the test, in which she is the favorite for gold.
Russian athletes competing in the Olympics are already shadowed by a history of illegal doping: WADA banned Russia from international competitions in 2019 for doping violations. Under the ban that expires at the end of this year, they have only been able to participate as neutrals in the Games.