[1][2] On 29 January 2024, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled in Valieva's doping case involving the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA).

Even with the above suspension and disqualification taken into account, Valieva is the current world record holder for the women's short program, free skating, and total scores.

Ranked third in the short program and first in the free skate, she won the gold medal ahead of Wi Seo-yeong of South Korea and teammate and training partner Maiia Khromykh.

[17] One month later, at the 2020 JGP Russia, she placed first in both programs with personal best scores to take the title ahead of compatriots Ksenia Sinitsyna and Viktoria Vasilieva.

[20] Before the 2019–20 Junior Grand Prix Final in December, a minor injury prevented Valieva from training the quadruple toe loop jump.

As a result, she finished third in the segment; however, the strength of her short program score allowed her to win the overall event by 2.04 points over teammate Maiia Khromykh.

[35] Making her senior Grand Prix debut at the 2021 Skate Canada International, Valieva won the short program with a new personal best score of 84.19, 2.95 points ahead of Elizaveta Tuktamysheva in second place.

Valieva's results qualified her to the Grand Prix Final, which was subsequently canceled due to travel and gathering restrictions prompted by the spread of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

She finished first in the short program with a clean skate and apparently extended her world record score by over three points to become the first woman to break the 90-point barrier,[40] which however was rescinded by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in 2024 for a 2021 anti-doping violation.

During the short program in the women's singles event at the Winter Olympics on 15 February, Valieva placed first ahead of Russian compatriot Shcherbakova despite faltering during a triple Axel though not falling.

In the free skate, she fell on a quadruple toe loop, but she still won the gold medal ahead of Sofia Akateva and Anastasiya Zinina.

However, RUSADA refused to strip her Olympic gold medal in the team event, prompting WADA to file a case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

[54][55] Subsequently, Alexandra Trusova became the gold medalist of the 2022 Russian Championships, with Anna Shcherbakova moving up to silver and Adeliia Petrosian receiving the bronze medal.

The sample was analyzed at the Doping Control Laboratory at Stockholm's Karolinska University Hospital, a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-accredited lab.

[61][62] Valieva was given a provisional suspension after her positive result, but was cleared on appeal by RUSADA's independent Disciplinary Anti-Doping Committee (DAC) on 9 February, just a day later.

[63] Due to Valieva being a minor at the time and thus classified as a "protected person" under WADA guidelines, RUSADA and the IOC announced on 12 February that they would broaden the scope of their respective investigations to include members of her entourage, such as coaches and team doctors.

The CAS decided that preventing her from competing "would cause her irreparable harm in the circumstances" while noting that any medals won by Valieva at the Beijing Olympics would be withheld pending the results of the continuing investigation into her doping violation.

The accommodating decision from the court, subject to further and ongoing investigation, was made on three grounds: due to her age, she was a "protected person" per WADA code, subject to different rules than adult athletes; she "did not test positive during the Olympic Games in Beijing"; and "There were serious issues of untimely notification of the results ... which impinged upon the Athlete's ability to establish certain legal requirements for her benefit".

"[70] On 15 February, after placing first in the women's short program, Valieva was reported by The New York Times to have also tested positive for two other drugs that are not banned from competition, hypoxen and L-carnitine, from her 25 December urine sample.

The combination of these drugs with trimetazidine was described as a "trifecta of substances" which "seem to be aimed at increasing endurance, reducing fatigue and promoting greater efficiency in using oxygen" by Travis Tygart, chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

At the time of the doping test, Valieva had declared taking hypoxen and L-carnitine, both of which are used in Russia supposedly to treat heart conditions or enhance athletic performance.

[76] President Vladimir Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called Bach's comments "deeply inappropriate", stating that "the harshness of a coach in high-level sport is key for their athletes to achieve victories.

[78] When the US team and the Japanese team announced their choices of athletes to compete at the March ISU World Championships in France, the Figure Skating Federation of Russia had not yet indicated their choice of which three women to send to France – at the time, Valieva remained eligible to compete – unless a negative outcome for doping was filed against her before the competition began.

Tygart further stated that as a minor, Valieva could still be either fully exculpated or given a warning concerning her testing positive, depending on the extent of findings in the ongoing RUSADA investigation of doping.

On 8 August, insidethegames wrote that the six-month report originally expected on 8 August would be allowed some extra time because further data was requested by RUSADA in July in order to complete its report stating that: "WADA President Witold Bańka recently told insidethegames that he expects a hearing will be held by RUSADA 'quite soon', and that the organization will 'monitor it'.

"[87] On 15 September, Christine Brennan writing for USA Today indicated that RUSADA had completed their report and delivered it for evaluation and subsequent scheduling of official hearings concerning the investigation of Valieva's possible misconduct regarding the use of banned substances during competition.

A disciplinary hearing reviewing the Rusada investigation results is presently planned to take place in late September or early October.

[94] In March 2023, Graham Dunbar writing for AP stated that CAS was in the process of selecting a 3-judge panel which should decide upon the question of either allowing or suspending Valieva from competition at the next Winter Olympics based on their investigation.

Drake would be joined by American lawyer Jeffrey Mishkin who was selected by WADA and the ISU while French attorney Mathieu Maisonneuve had been nominated by Valieva.

[114] On 18 March 2022 in Kazan, Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov met and awarded her a "Duslyk" order and a medal of "100 years of the Establishment of Tatar ASSR" to her mother, Alsu Anvarovna Valieva.