A disappointing finals performance by figure skater Kamila Valieva helped the International Olympic Committee (IOC) avoid some serious drama on Thursday.
In the finals of the women’s free skate competition, Russia’s Valieva — who was viewed as a serious contender to win top honors — fell twice and had four other miscues during what will go down as her worst and final performance of these Winter Olympics.
The 15-year-old ended up finishing fourth in the competition. Behind fellow Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) teammates Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova, who won gold and silver medals, respectively, and Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto.
Winter Olympics 2022: Kamila Valieva falls twice, and finishes fourth in free skate final
Valieva’s failure in the finals was serendipitous for the IOC as it avoided the awkwardness of having a medalist who just recently tested positive for a banned substance.
Over the last week, Valieva has been at the forefront of the Winter Olympics 2022 headlines, after news broke on Feb. 9 that she tested positive for the drug trimetazidine at the Russian National finals on Christmas day.
However, the Swedish lab administering those drug tests did not release the results until earlier this month, after the Olympic games were well underway, and Valieva took part in a gold medal-winning performance in the team figure skating competition.
Valieva was allowed to continue competing at Bejing Olympics despite positive drug test
Despite the revelation, on Monday, The Court of Arbitration for Sport cleared the Russian-born skater to continue to compete at the Bejing Games. With the caveat being she would not be awarded a possible medal until the IOC finished a thorough investigation.
The decision created an uproar throughout the sports world, especially amongst former and current Olympians. The ROC already has a dark cloud hanging over it for unofficially representing Russia, a nation that has a long and disturbing history of failed drug tests and doping allegations over the last few decades.
Russia is officially banned from Olympic competition after a state-run doping scheme was discovered in 2016. However, the IOC has still allowed athletes from the country to compete under the ROC banner.