Kamila Valieva will return to the ice for The Channel One Cup

Figure skater Kamila Valieva, whose talents were overshadowed by the doping controversy at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, will return to the ice this weekend competing in the Channel One Cup in Saransk, Russia.

The Russian-only event will be a team competition featuring two teams of skaters, competing in various categories, including ice dancing, men’s and women’s singles and pairs.

Many see The Channel One Cup as a contrived Russian event to compete against the World Championships.

Due to the sanctions imposed on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, all Russian skaters are banned from competing in the World Championships currently taking place in Montpellier, France.

Olympic champion Anna Shcherbakova is expected to participate. Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov who won silver in ice dance, as well as Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov, who won silver in the pairs discipline, are also scheduled to compete.

The 15-year-old prodigy Valieva tested positive for trimetazidine during last month’s Olympics. The banned heart medicine has been determined to give athletes an unfair advantage.

Despite the positive test, she was still allowed to participate in Beijing. Her suspension was lifted on the grounds of welfare concerns due to her age.

However the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled Valieva’s suspension should be lifted, and she should be allowed to participate in the individual event, where she ended up finishing in fourth place after stumbling on the ice.

The Russian Anti-Doping Agency is still deciding if Valieva will face disciplinary measures for her positive test. It has six months from when she was first notified about her positive test to make its final ruling.

The World Anti-Doping Agency is now starting its own investigation into the teenager’s trainer and entourage leading up to her Olympic debut in Beijing.

In Russia, the validity of the event in Montpellier has been dismissed. Alexander Gorshkov, the head of the country’s figure skating union, admitted the Channel One Cup was staged to overshadow the other competitions the non-Russian skaters would be participating in.

“The Channel One Cup will be held in Saransk in the same week as the World Championships,” Gorshkov, himself a former Olympic champion, announced late last month. “Is it accidental or not? That is up to you to decide.”