[ad_1]
A Russian figure skater failed a drugs test last month but was cleared by Moscow’s anti-doping agency to travel to Beijing where she has since won a gold medal, it has been revealed, as an urgent appeal is launched against the call to let her compete.
Kamila Valieva, 15, tested positive for banned substance TMZ – an angina medication that increases blood flow to the heart and stabilises blood pressure – on December 25 during Russia‘s annual Figure Skating Championships in Saint Petersburg.
But the Russian Anti-Doping Agency still cleared her to compete in the Winter Games where she won gold in the women’s team event Monday, landing two quadruple jumps – the first woman to do so at the Olympics – and a difficult triple axle in the process.
A testing lab in Sweden that was sent a sample from the Russian games then flagged the banned substance on Tuesday, after the event but before the medal ceremony had taken place. The ceremony has been delayed as a result.
An urgent hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, led by the International Testing Agency, is now being convened to decide whether Valieva can compete next week in the women’s singles event, where she is heavy favourite to take gold.
Whether or not the team gold will be allowed to stand will be decided later.
Russia is already under heavy sanction by Olympic organisers after it was revealed in 2016 that the country had been running a state-sponsored doping programme since at least 2011 covering the ‘vast majority’ of summer and winter Olympic sports.
Officially, Russia is banned from competing at the Olympics: Its athletes have to take part as the ‘Russian Olympic Committee’, must wear a neutral flag on their uniforms, and cannot play their anthem at medal ceremonies if they win gold.
Kamila Valieva, 15, tested positive for a banned angina medication at a competition in Russia in December, but was cleared to compete in Beijing by Moscow’s anti-doping agency (pictured in training today)
…
[ad_2]
Source : dailymail
