Feb 11, 2022 4 min read

Weekly Combine Newsletter: ROC doping violation confirmed, Interpol Bi-weekly review and more

In Interpol's Match-Fixing Taskforce latest bi-weekly Bulletin detailing integrity issues in global sports, nefarious betting and gambling practices were highlighted as a focus across several jurisdictions.

The Bulletin reports on the dark side of illegal gambling operations in Macau and the Philippines. In the Philippines in particular, a report tabled to the Filipino Senate has shone a light on the terrible human cost of these operations by detailing "links between sex-trafficking, prostitution and gambling companies registered in the Phillipines." The report also highlights that at least eight gambling operators registered in the Phillipines have sponsorship deals with English Premier League Clubs.

Separately, the International Betting Integirty Association reported 236 cases of suspicious betting to authorities in 2021. The non-for-profit organisation said this was a 13% reduction from 2020, noting that tennis and football made up the most significant percentage of alerts, and the 27 alerts in Russia was the largest from a single country.

Interpol- Integrity in Sport Bi-weekly Bulletin (25 January 2022-7 February 2022)

Meanwhile, at the Beijing Winter Olympics, anticipation is growing into the ongoing delay over the Russian figure skating mixed team medal ceremony amid doping controversy. After initial confusion, the International Testing Agency ('ITA') has now confirmed the athlete in question, 15-year-old sensation Kamila Valieva, tested positive for the non-specified prohibited substance trimetazidine.

The ITA directly named the athlete but acknowledged she is a protected person under the World Anti-Doping Code ('Code'). The ITA explained they only named her to provide official information due to the amount of speculation involved after the media outlets that broke this story, followed by major news outlets across the globe, all mentioned the Russian athlete by name.

A furious Russia is asking questions over why the Christmas day test only came to light the day after the mixed team took gold. Russia's Disciplinary Committee has also revoked Valieva's provisional suspension after her appeal to them. A decision that the IOC and WADA have unsurprisingly appealed to CAS, whose Anti-Doping Division will decide whether the Code has been applied correctly, before the women's individual competition commences on Tuesday.

Early this week we considered the consequences to both the ROC mixed team gold medal and the athlete's future from any anti-doping violation.

The proceedings that will now go before CAS will only address the provisional suspension aspect of the case. The decision concerning ROC's team gold medal will only be taken upon the final decision of the full merits of the case, the ITA stated.

ITA Media Release (11 February 2022)

Another athlete, an Iranian alpine skier Hossein Saveh Shemshaki has returned an adverse analytical finding for a prohibited steroid, according to a media release published by the ITA. The ITA says Mr Shemshaki has been provisionally suspended from competition, pending formal procedures.

ITA Media Release (9 February 2022)

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Weekend Roundup: Winter Olympics, CAS issues more decisions from Beijing and more

In our reporting of legal issues arising over the weekend from the Olympic Games and Court of Arbitration for Sport (‘CAS’), we saw further decisions from Olympic disputes published by the CAS Ad-Hoc Division and a test of confidence in the integrity of Beijing’s figure skating events. CAS AHD revea…

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