Gold was won 'honestly'

BEIJING • Teen figure skating sensation Kamila Valieva won a gold medal having earlier failed a drug test and Olympic officials will fight Russia's decision to let her compete at the Winter Games, the International Testing Agency (ITA) said yesterday.

The 15-year-old's title, which she earned on Monday in the mixed team event, and her Games future now hangs in the balance as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) attempts to draw a line in the sand over Russian doping.

The pint-sized skater, who yesterday continued to practise and has not made any public comment, is one of the youngest Olympic athletes to test positive for a banned substance, in her case Trimetazidine. It is used to treat the heart condition angina, but is barred from use in competition as the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) states it can "enhance efficient use of oxygen".

Many fans around the world have expressed outrage over how she came to have the drug in her system. "It is a shame, and the responsible adults should be banned from the sport forever!!!" German figure skating great Katarina Witt posted on Facebook. "What they knowingly did to her, if true, cannot be surpassed in inhumanity and makes my athlete's heart cry infinitely."

But while there is sympathy, many on social media felt she should not be allowed to skate in Tuesday's women's singles short programme.

Russian athletes are competing in Beijing without their flag and national anthem because of sanctions against Russia for previous violations. The country has acknowledged some shortcomings in its implementation of anti-doping rules, but has denied running a state-sponsored doping programme.

A defiant Kremlin yesterday said it was convinced the positive drug test was a "misunderstanding".

"Hold your head up, you're a Russian," government spokesman Dmitry Peskov urged Valieva in a conference call with reporters. "Go proudly and beat everyone."

Valieva delivered one of the Winter Games highlights when she landed the first quadruple jumps by a woman in Olympic competition on Monday. Her Olympic dream, however, turned into a nightmare yesterday when the ITA revealed that her urine sample, collected by Russian authorities at the national championships in St Petersburg on Dec 25, was positive.

The Wada-accredited testing lab in Stockholm reported the findings on Tuesday, which was why the medal ceremony was first delayed the same day before being shelved indefinitely, with second-and third-placed United States and Japan waiting for their prizes.

It was not immediately clear why there was such a delay between her test and the result, which allowed her to travel to Beijing and take part in the first of her two events. When asked, Anton Pohanka, director of Stockholm's doping control laboratory at Karolinska University Hospital, clammed up and refused to comment.

But Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) president Stanislav Pozdnyakov yesterday raised doubts over how the testing was handled.

He claimed that Valieva's positive doping test may have been deliberately held back to coincide with the end of the team competition, news agency Tass reported.

He added the six-week gap between the test and the announcement was suspicious and he had "serious questions about the process". The ROC is already taking steps to protect its athletes and to keep the gold medal that was won "honestly". It said that Valieva's tests were negative before and after Dec 25.

Rusada, the country's anti-doping body, imposed a provisional suspension on Valieva after Tuesday but that ban has since been lifted following her appeal.

The IOC, the International Skating Union (ISU) and Wada intend to challenge that decision, stating they will go through the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

CAS has set up a temporary office in Beijing to provide rapid resolution services during the Games and a six-member panel comprising top international lawyers and judges has been formed.

A decision is set to be made before Valieva competes on Tuesday. Under the rules of the draw, the ROC cannot replace Valieva in singles competition because she has already competed in the team event.

As Valieva is a minor, Travis Tygart, the head of the US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada), will not go after her but he warned those around her could fall foul of the Rodchenkov Act. Signed into law in 2020 by then president Donald Trump, it empowers American prosecutors to seek fines of up to US$1 million (S$1.34 million) and jail terms of up to 10 years, even for non-Americans, for those involved in doping programmes that have affected their athletes' results.

"Clean athletes deserve better, and this poor young woman deserves better," Tygart said. "She's getting chewed up (for doping) on top of being abused by the Russian state system."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS