Kamila Valieva: Russian skater fails to win figure skating medal at Winter Olympics after doping row

Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva has failed to win a medal at the Winter Olympics after falling several times in her final routine.

The 15-year-old, who controversially failed a drugs test before the Games began, was in tears on the ice at the end of her performance in the individual event.

Valieva was cleared to compete on Monday - a decision contested by the International Olympic Committee but overruled by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) - but had she come in the top three no medal ceremony would have taken place.

She gave a sample on Christmas Day and on 8 February it returned positive for trimetazidine, a heart medication.

Valieva's legal team claimed that her positive drugs test may have come from a contaminated glass of water that contained traces of her grandfather's heart medication.

Read more:
What is trimetazidine?

Hold your head up: Russia backs Valieva

A separate investigation led by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency will determine whether Valieva and her Russian teammates can keep the gold medals they won in the team skating event last week.

What happened on her final run?

The teenage figure skater left the ice in tears after falling twice and making a series of other errors in her free skate, meaning she missed out on a medal.

Valieva came into the final in first place, two points ahead of her compatriot Anna Shcherbakova after a strong run on Tuesday.

She skated to Bolero by Maurice Ravel in her free skate but slipped to fourth place with a score of 141.93.

Shcherbakova, 17, took gold ahead of her fellow Russian Alexandra Trusova, with Japan's Kaori Sakamoto claiming bronze.

The 15-year-old was visibly upset while waiting for her final scores.

Her fall out of the top three meant the flower ceremony - and subsequently the awarding of medals - will happen after all.

The skater now faces the prospect of being thrown out of the Games and having her results - including her gold in the team event last week - expunged from the records if her test for the banned medication is upheld.

The International Olympic Committee said earlier this week: "There will be an asterisk about the results on Friday because they will be preliminary.

"This case has not yet concluded and the CAS have made that very clear."

'Grandfather's medication'

Valieva's mother, Alsu, testified before the CAS panel.

She appeared to blame her daughter's grandfather, who she says regularly took her to training sessions.

"The athlete's mother testified that the athlete's grandfather regularly drives her to the first and second daily training sessions, waits for her at the training centre until training is over and then drives her back home where he stays with the athlete during lunch break," the judgment says.

"A video recording was viewed during the hearing which was made by the athlete's grandfather according to the athlete's representative, showing the athlete's grandfather with a package of "Trimetazidine MV" in his car."

'Traumatising experience'

Former Olympic figure skaters had sympathy for the teenager after she missed out on a medal.

Ashley Wagner, who won silver in the same event in the 2016 Games, said she was "sick to my stomach".

Writing on Twitter, she said: "This is a moment where you genuinely have to say - that poor kid.

"She should not have ever been put in this position.

"She shouldn't have been out on that ice, she shouldn't have been put in a position where she became the face of a problem bigger than her."

Polina Edmunds, who represented the US in the 2014 Olympic Games, said it was a very "traumatising" experience for the teenager.

"Very traumatising Olympic experience for Kamila Valieva.

"She should not have been allowed to compete, it's devastating that she was put in this situation, on all levels," she wrote.

'Bright future'

After the event, the Russian Olympic Committee said: "Kamila, we embrace you! The whole country is sending you their support right now."

And Russian ice dancer Nikita Katsalapov described her as a "very strong athlete, a very strong girl".

She said: "To skate under so much pressure and withstand it all, it costs a lot. It didn't work out this time, she is only 15, she has everything ahead of her.

"She has a bright future ahead of her. We all see that, we see how she skates. We know that she can do it."

Still a chance for a medal

Valieva could still get a team medal.

Hours before the finale in the free skate event, the president of the Russian Olympic Committee promised to fight any effort to take away the gold medal in the team event, even if Valieva was eventually disqualified for doping.

Stanislav Pozdnyakov insisted that the anti-doping rules were written in such a way that a review of results in a team event would only take place if the alleged doping violation had been committed during the Olympic Games.

"We will defend this position consistently in any possible proceedings, including in the Court of Arbitration for Sport if required," he said.