Beijing, doping and Kremlin support
Kamila Valieva was born in 2006 in Kazan. At the age of six, she moved to Moscow with her mother Alsu Valieva for the sake of her sports career. Her father Valery Ramazanov is a military man. In an interview, he repeatedly said that because of his service and the distance, he and his daughter hardly saw each other.
In Moscow, Valievaʼs career quickly took off. Since 2018, she has been training with Eteri Tutberidze, one of the most famous Russian coaches who has trained more than one Olympic champion and has state awards.
In 2020, Valieva won the World Junior Championships, and later became famous for her quadruple jumps and triple Axels, super-complex elements for womenʼs figure skating. Before the 2022 Olympics, she was setting world records and going to Beijing as the main contender for gold. Two-time US Olympian Johnny Weir called 15-year-old Valieva the best skater he had ever seen.
This is Kamila Valieva at the World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Tallinn, March 6, 2020. And this is the awards ceremony the next day, when she took first place.
Getty Images / «Babel'»
On February 4, 2022, the Winter Olympics kicked off in Beijing. A few days later, Valieva made her first appearance on the ice in the team event and posted the best result among all participants in the short program.
The next day, she performed two quadruple jumps in the free program, helping the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) team win the tournament. Valieva became the first woman in Olympic history to perform a quadruple jump.
Her performance attracted attention not only from the sports world. American actor Alec Baldwin posted a video of her performance and wrote that Valieva gives the world “exciting beauty”.
Kamila Valieva performs her legendary quadruple jump.
You Tube / 2flips4.5twists
The Russian Olympic Committee team was supposed to receive gold medals for the team tournament, but the ceremony was suddenly canceled. The reason was soon learned: Valievaʼs doping test, which she took at the end of December, came back positive. The banned drug trimetazidine was found in her sample. The Kremlin immediately stood up for Valieva.
Vladimir Putinʼs press secretary Dmitry Peskov called the situation a "misunderstanding" and said that the Russian authorities "unlimitedly and completely" support Kamila. He advised the skater herself not to hide her face, to be proud that she is Russian, and to "defeat everyone".
Valieva was suspended from the competition, but she appealed the decision. The ban was eventually lifted, and the case was referred to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which ruled that Valieva could continue competing in the Olympics. The case was not closed, but was referred to the Russian Anti-Doping Agency. Valieva took to the ice again the next day.
The day before, she had first publicly commented on the scandal, saying that she was “emotionally exhausted,” and that the situation had taught her that adulthood “can be unfair”.
Her team explained the positive test by saying that Kamila could have accidentally come into contact with her grandfather’s medication, which was trimetazidine. Valieva made mistakes on the ice, but still took first place.
There was one performance left before the gold medal — the free program. But it was Valieva’s worst at this Olympics. The skater fell several times, made a mistake on her jumps, and couldn’t hold back her tears after the performance. A few days ago, Valieva was called the main contender for gold, and now she took fourth place. Coach Eteri Tutberidze met her at the sidelines with the question: “Why did you stop fighting?”.
The gold went to Russian Anna Shcherbakova, silver to Russian Alexandra Trusova, and bronze to Japanese Kaori Sakamoto. Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov declared that “adult scum broke the girl”. Valieva went home without a medal.
Kamila Valieva after the same free program at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing that cost her a medal. Next to her are coach Eteri Tutberidze and choreographer Danilo Gleichengaus.
Getty Images / «Babel'»
Putinʼs favorite offended figure skater
After Beijing, Kamila Valieva did not disappear from the public space. In March 2022, she returned to the ice at the Channel One Cup, a Russian tournament held in place of international starts after the International Skating Union suspended Russian and Belarusian athletes from the competition due to Russiaʼs invasion of Ukraine.
In April 2022, Valieva received personal support from Vladimir Putin. At the awards ceremony for Russian Olympians in the Kremlin, he recalled the doping scandal surrounding the athlete and said that Russians were “especially worried” about her. Putin added that Valieva “confidently walked towards victory” and called her performance an example of true sportsmanship.
On the same day, Valieva was awarded the Order of Friendship, one of Russia’s state awards. After the ceremony, Putin personally congratulated her on her 16th birthday, presenting her with a bouquet of roses and a wooden box with a silk handkerchief.
Vladimir Putin and Kamila Valieva in the Kremlin on April 26, 2022. That day, on her 16th birthday, Valieva received the Order of Friendship from Putin.
Getty Images / «Babel'»
And at the end of 2022, Valieva fell under Ukrainian sanctions, becoming one of 56 athletes from Russia and other countries who supported Russian aggression.
At the end of 2023, Valieva took part in the documentary film “Thank you, dear!” (“Thank you, dear!”), which shows modern Russia through the eyes of famous Russians. In the film, Valieva returned to Kazan, where she was born and began figure skating, and tested the new M-12 Moscow-Kazan highway.
Other heroes of the film included singer SHAMAN and chess player Serhiy Karjakin, who went to occupied Crimea and Mariupol as part of his unit.
Poster for the Russian documentary film "Thank you, dear!", starring Kamila Valieva.
Национальный центр россия
Meanwhile, Valievaʼs doping case remained unresolved. In January 2023, the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) admitted that she had violated the rules, but suggested that she might not have known about them due to her age. Therefore, she was not disqualified.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Skating Union (ISU) disagreed with this decision and appealed it to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The case continued for about a year.
On January 29, 2024, the Court of Arbitration for Sport found Valieva guilty of violating anti-doping rules and disqualified her for four years. The term was counted from December 25, 2021, the date when she tested positive for trimetazidine.
The court also annulled all her results, awards, and medals from that date. That is, Valieva lost her results from the Beijing Olympics. Because of this, the result of the team tournament also changed — the Russian team lost gold.
Within weeks of her disqualification, Valieva became an ambassador for the Future Games, a large-scale Russian sports project. At the opening ceremony, she sat next to Vladimir Putin. His press secretary Dmitry Peskov directly called this a show of support for the athlete from the president.
Vladimir Putin, Kamila Valiyeva and Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov at the opening of the Future Games in Kazan on February 21, 2024.
Getty Images / «Babel'»
In March 2024, Valieva took part in the presidential elections, in a peculiar way. On March 16, she came to the polling station with her mother. Valieva herself could not vote yet, she was not yet 18 years old.
After that, she published a video and wrote that on this day Russians “choose the future of their native country”. She did not name Putin directly, but at the end of the post she quoted from his campaign address.
And already in May, Valieva came to Putin’s inauguration in the Kremlin.
Kamila Valieva at the inauguration of Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, May 7, 2024.
Alexandr Kazakov / Ria Novosti
In 2025, she continued to appear at state events. In March, Valieva attended a congress of the Movement of the First, a youth organization created by the Russian government. Putin spoke there, and Valieva called the event “a real holiday for youth” and specifically noted the presence of “the president himself”.
She also urged followers to visit exhibitions at the National Center “Russia”, because “the head of state has already visited them, so don’t lag behind”.
Valievaʼs father is a military man who is training personnel for the war in Ukraine
A separate part of Kamila Valievaʼs story is her father, Valery Ramazanov. He is a colonel and a career military man. He rose from a tank platoon commander to the head of a group in the Main Directorate for International Military Cooperation of the General Staff of the Russian Federation. Ramazanov also calls himself a veteran of combat operations.
In 2024, it became known that Ramazanov heads the "Union of Marines of Crimea" — an organization that unites Russian marines. It, in particular, cooperates with the 810th Separate Guards Marine Brigade of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
On June 12, 2024, the Soyuz, led by Ramazanov, transferred so-called humanitarian aid to the soldiers of this brigade: a “Harpoon-3” anti-drone rifle worth approximately 2 million rubles, chemical protection equipment, medical supplies, and other equipment.
Kamila Valievaʼs father Valery Ramazanov with "humanitarian aid" for "SVO" participants, June 2024.
Всероссийская общественная организация морских пехотинцев «Тайфун»
Ramazanov is also involved in the creation of the Saturn military training center in occupied Crimea. It is planned to train contract soldiers, volunteers, UAV operators, signalmen, medics, and other military specialists. Ramazanov himself stated that the center should increase the combat potential of the SVO participants and help reduce losses of Russian military personnel.
On July 25, 2024, the "Union of Marines of Crimea" published joint photos of Ramazanov and Valieva with the caption: "Our head of the Union of Marines of Crimea, Colonel Valeriy Ramazanov with his own daughter Kamila Valieva. Sochi, July 2024."
In one pic, they stand together with Valievaʼs ice show partner Alexander Enbert, in another, Ramazanov hugs his daughter.
Kamila Valieva with her father Valery Ramazanov, July 2024.
Vk / Союз морских пехотинцев Крыма
After the photos appeared, Ramazanov gave an interview to Russiaʼs Sport24. He said that he and Valieva had not seen each other for almost 10 years. According to him, the reason was military service: he was constantly on business trips, while Valieva moved to Moscow with her mother and began to train on a very tight schedule. They met in Sochi, where Valieva was performing in an ice show.
After this interview, Valieva responded to her fatherʼs words on social media. She did not mention him directly, but wrote that her entire adult life was raised solely by her mother, who was her support and pillar of strength.
Valieva returns
While Kamila Valieva was serving her suspension, she remained in figure skating. Since the spring of 2024, the athlete began performing in Russian ice shows, and after completing her four-year suspension, she decided to return to competition.
In October 2025, it became known that Valieva had left Eteri Tutberidzeʼs group, with whom she had been training since 2018. Before that, she personally came to say goodbye to Tutberidze and gave her a bouquet.
Valieva moved to coach Svetlana Sokolovska at the academy of Tatyana Navka, the Olympic figure skating champion and wife of Putinʼs press secretary Dmitry Peskov. On January 18, 2026, Valieva announced that she was returning to competition. She wrote that she was looking forward to the moment when she would again feel the "excitement of sports", and that the love and support of her fans had become "the most powerful source of motivation" for her.
Valievaʼs return to Russia was really awaited. At her first start — the Russian Ski Jumping Championship in January 2026 — Valievaʼs fans came with large gift packages. In the stands, they unfurled a huge banner “Weʼve been waiting!”, and each time Valieva went on the ice, they were greeted with louder applause than the performances of other athletes.
After her performance, fans threw toys onto the ice. True, the first competitive start after a four-year break turned out to be difficult: Valieva only reached the semifinals of the Russian Ski Jumping Championship.
Fans welcome Kamila Valieva at the competition in Moscow, January 31, 2026. The banner reads, "Welcome back, Kamila! The wait is over!"
Getty Images / «Babel'»
Valieva also got a chance to return to international ice. On August 7, 2026, the International Skating Union (ISU) granted her the status of an Individual Neutral Athlete (AIN). This means that she can compete in international tournaments, but not under the Russian flag: without state symbols, a national uniform and an anthem.
At the same time Tatyana Navka back in late 2025, spoke of Valieva as an athlete who, upon her return, should “defend the honor of Russia” in international competitions.