MOSCOW, September 15 – Figure skater Kamila Valieva nominated French lawyer Mathieu Maisonneuve to the panel of judges at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to consider her case, according to a release on the official CAS website.

Hearings in Valieva’s case will be held on September 26-28, the 29th is set as a reserve day. The skater herself will take part in them via video link. Maisonneuve will be one of three arbitrators in the case. The panel also included Briton James Drake and American Geoffrey Mishkin.

Drake has been appointed chairman of the commission on the case. Mishkin was nominated as a member of the board by the International Skating Union (ISU) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) is a plaintiff in one procedure and a defendant in another, and has decided not to participate in the nomination process.

The figure skater passed a positive doping test on December 25, 2021, on the day of the free program of the Russian Championship. This became known on February 8, 2022 – the day after the end of the team tournament of the Olympics in Beijing, where the Russian team with Valieva won. After an appropriate investigation, the RUSADA disciplinary anti-doping committee issued a verdict of “no guilt or negligence” and did not impose any punishment on the athlete, but annulled the result of the Russian Championship. WADA referred Valieva’s case to CAS, with ISU and RUSADA joining as parties.