For Kamila Valieva, the road back to international figure skating has hit another unexpected turn. Just when a return seemed possible, the door has been shut in her face again.

The International Skating Union has temporarily revoked the neutral status of Valieva and fellow Russian skater Mark Kondratiuk. Both athletes have appealed the decision, and if the ISU rejects their appeals, they could take the fight to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The latest decision reportedly came after the ISU asked representatives for both skaters to clarify information connected to their neutral status. RIA Novosti reported that the athletes were given roughly a week to provide explanations before the temporary measure could become more consequential.

For Valieva, the setback carries particular weight.

Valieva’s career has already been shaped by years of controversy. At just 15, she became the center of attention at the 2022 Beijing Olympics after testing positive for trimetazidine in a December 2021 sample.

The result came after she helped Russia win the team event. Her result was later disqualified, with the United States awarded gold. In 2024, CAS handed her a four-year ban, backdated to December 25, 2021. That suspension ended in December 2025, allowing her to compete again in Russia.

International competition was a different challenge. Russian and Belarusian skaters remain restricted, although the ISU created a pathway for selected athletes to compete as Individual Neutral Athletes.

The rules are strict, barring athletes with certain military ties or those who have supported the war in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Figure Skating Federation has also called for tougher screening.

Now, those rules have put Valieva and Kondratiuk back under scrutiny.

Kondratiuk, a teammate of Valieva at the Beijing Olympics, had even been entered for the Kinoshita Group Cup in Tokyo before his neutral status was withdrawn.

With both appeals pending, the next move could determine whether the dispute remains within the ISU or reaches sports’ highest legal forum. And for Valieva, another trip to CAS would reopen a chapter she may have hoped was finally closed.

Kamila Valieva’s road so far before the controversy

Before the controversy, Valieva was one of figure skating’s biggest young sensations. Her jumps were incredibly difficult, yet she made them look almost effortless…

She set world records and quickly rewrote the record books. At the 2022 Beijing Olympics, she became the first woman to land a quadruple jump at the Games, pulling off a quad Salchow and a quad toe-triple toe combination in the team event.

American Olympian Karen Chen once summed up the gap Valieva created with a simple admission: “[They] are doing things that I can only dream of doing. I am not capable of doing what they are doing.”

But Valieva’s Olympic story quickly became about far more than her skating. She finished fourth in the individual event amid the doping controversy and later faced the lengthy suspension that erased several of her results.

Now 20, she has returned to domestic competition and is attempting to find a route back to the international stage. That route appeared to open when the ISU introduced its neutral-athlete system.

For the moment, though, that path is blocked.

Valieva and Kondratiuk have challenged the ISU’s decision. If their appeals fail, CAS could become their next destination.

For Valieva especially, the latest battle is another reminder that her career has never followed a simple script. The skater once celebrated as a teenage phenomenon is now fighting simply for the right to compete internationally again.