Valieva's test revealed three drugs, two legal

BEIJING • Kamila Valieva's Beijing Olympics doping controversy took a fresh twist yesterday after media reported the Russian had three substances used to treat heart conditions in the sample which triggered the scandal.

The 15-year-old figure skater topped the short programme on Tuesday, bursting into tears afterwards and refusing to talk to journalists. She is in prime position to win the women's singles when it concludes today.

Her case has overshadowed the Olympics after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled she should not be suspended despite failing a drug test in December, although she has not been cleared of doping and faces a further probe.

Games testing authorities said last week that the teenager tested positive for trimetazidine, a drug used to treat angina but which is banned for athletes by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) because it can boost endurance.

The New York Times reported yesterday that her sample also contained the substances Hypoxen and L-Carnitine, but they are not on Wada's prohibited list.

The report said the disclosures about the different substances were contained in a document submitted at the CAS hearing.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Denis Oswald said on Tuesday Valieva informed the CAS panel that she tested positive because of "contamination" from her grandfather's medicine, possibly ingested by mistake.

But the discovery of several substances in the sample of an elite athlete, especially one as young as Valieva, was highly unusual, said a prominent anti-doping official.

"It's a trifecta of substances - two of which are allowed, and one that is not allowed," Travis Tygart, chief of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, said, adding such a combination "seem to be aimed at increasing endurance, reducing fatigue and promoting greater efficiency in using oxygen".

Valieva's mother had said her daughter took Hypoxen for heart "variations", the Times said.

The teen has already led Russia to the team title last week, before the doping controversy erupted.

The medal ceremony for that will not take place in Beijing because of the saga. Likewise, if she finishes in the top three of the singles competition, there will also be no ceremony.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian cross-country skier Valentyna Kaminska has tested positive for an anabolic androgenic steroid and two stimulants, the International Testing Agency (ITA) said yesterday.

The ITA said the sample was collected during an in-competition anti-doping control on Feb 10 and reported by a Wada-accredited laboratory in Beijing on Tuesday. All three substances are banned.

Iranian alpine skier Hossein Saveh-Shemshaki was provisionally suspended last week for also testing positive for an anabolic androgenic steroid.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, NYTIMES