Figure skating sensation Kamila Valieva showed up for her scheduled practice at the Beijing Olympics after Russian media reported the 15-year-old had tested positive for a banned substance.
Valieva in doubt for singles competition
Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The teenager was part of the Russian Olympic Committee team that won the figure skating team event on Monday, ahead of the United States and Japan. But the medal ceremony has been delayed for unexplained legal reasons.
Russian athletes are competing without their flag and national anthem because of sanctions for past doping violations.
Wearing a navy blue hoodie, black tights with shorts over them and her hair in a bun, Valieva took to the ice late morning with her coach Eteri Tutberidze attending.
Despite the pressure surrounding her, the teenager performed quadruple jumps in practice, after becoming the first woman to complete a quad jump at an Olympics during her team’s winning performance on Monday.
Valieva declined to answer questions in the mixed zone, the area where journalists interview athletes.
Russian media reported on Wednesday that Valieva had returned a positive test, with newspapers RBC and Kommersant naming the drug as Trimetazidine, which is typically used to treat angina.
The IOC has declined to answer questions, citing legal concerns.
In other Olympic news….
* Irene Schouten of the Netherlands scooped up her second gold medal when she won the women’s 5000 metre speed skating event, as the Dutch team continued to dominate on the ice.
For the second time in the Winter Games, Schouten also broke an Olympic record that had stood untouched for 20 years since Salt Lake City.
Martina Sablikova took bronze to become the most decorated Czech Olympian with her seventh medal.
* A spectacular performance by Chris Lillis helped propel the United States to victory in the first-ever Olympic freestyle skiing mixed team aerials event, leaving favourites China to settle for silver.
* American Mikaela Shiffrin will start in today’s super-G race, after considering pulling out of the event following early exits from her specialist events.
Shiffrin failed to finish in either the slalom or giant slalom, her two favoured races.
New Zealand’s Alice Robinson will also compete in the super-G.
* American Nathan Chen achieved a spectacular redemption when he claimed the men’s figure skating title in dazzling fashion, completing a four-year journey to the exhilarating tunes of Elton John.
The 22-year-old, who left empty-handed after a meltdown in Pyeongchang in 2018, stood by the edge of the rink to soak up the atmosphere during warm-up and then skated carefreely to “Rocket Man” to add to his world record in the short programme for a total of 332.60.
Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama was a distant second and fellow Japanese Shoma Uno ended up third, ending up with no possible regrets after ‘Rocket Chen’ landed his fourth quadruple jump.
-Reuters
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