Russia's Valieva aims for second Olympic title under doping cloud

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Russia’s Kamila Valieva competes within the ladies’s single skating quick program of the determine skating occasion through the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Video games on the Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing on February 15, 2022. (Picture by Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP)

by Man JACKSON
Agence France-Presse

BEIJING, China (AFP) – Teenage Russian determine skater Kamila Valieva will try to win a second Beijing Olympics title on Thursday within the subsequent chapter of a doping scandal which has overshadowed the Video games.

The 15-year-old is in pole place after ending prime in Tuesday’s first half of the ladies’s singles competitors, earlier than the all-important free skate that begins at 1000 GMT.

In early motion, Eileen Gu put herself on monitor for a 3rd freestyle ski medal for China whereas Mikaela Shiffrin was within the driving seat for the alpine mixed occasion because the American skier sought to salvage her disastrous Olympics.

However all eyes will as soon as extra be on Valieva. If she finishes within the prime three, medals won’t be offered, in an unprecedented transfer for the Olympics.

Valieva’s doping case has dominated the second week of the Video games within the Chinese language capital after the Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) dominated that she may proceed to skate within the Olympics regardless of failing a medication check in December.

Russia’s Kamila Valieva attends a coaching session on February 14, 2022 prior the determine skating occasion on the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Video games. – Russian teenage determine skating sensation Kamila Valieva was on February 14 cleared by the Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport to proceed competing within the Beijing Olympics regardless of failing a doping check. CAS stated it had rejected appeals by the Worldwide Olympic Committee, the World Anti-Doping Company and the Worldwide Skating Union to have the suspension of the 15-year-old reinstated. The prodigious Valieva, who has not been cleared of doping, is now ready to participate within the singles occasion that begins on Tuesday and will likely be favorite to win. (Picture by Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP)

Earlier than her constructive check was introduced, she performed a central position in serving to the Russians to skating staff gold final week, turning into the primary lady to carry out a quadruple leap in Olympic competitors.

No medal ceremony happened for that occasion both due to Valieva’s involvement.

IOC president Thomas Bach met the second-placed US staff from the staff occasion on Wednesday, however the IOC refused to touch upon reviews that Bach supplied the skaters Olympic torches in lieu of their silver medals.

When CAS cleared Valieva to remain on the Video games, it cited her younger age as one of many “distinctive circumstances”, however she has not been absolved of doping and the investigation appears to be like set to rumble on properly after the motion ends in Beijing.

{The teenager} examined constructive for trimetazidine, a drug used to deal with angina however which is banned for athletes by the World Anti-Doping Company (WADA) as a result of it may well increase endurance.

Russia’s Kamila Valieva attends a coaching session on February 13, 2022 prior the determine skating occasion on the Beijing 2022 Olympic Video games. (Picture by Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP)

US media have reported that her pattern additionally contained the substances Hypoxen and L-Carnitine, that are additionally used to deal with coronary heart situations. They aren’t on WADA’s prohibited checklist.

The affair places the highlight as soon as extra on the participation of Russian athletes at Olympic Video games.

They’re collaborating in Beijing underneath the banner of the Russian Olympic Committee as a result of Russia as a rustic is serving a two-year ban as punishment for a state-sponsored doping programme.

In one other doping case, Video games’ testers stated Ukrainian cross-country skier Valentyna Kaminska had examined constructive for an anabolic steroid and two banned stimulants.

Her highest inserting in two particular person occasions was seventieth.

Gu and Shiffrin poised

China’s Gu Ailing Eileen takes half in a follow session forward of the freestyle snowboarding ladies’s freeski halfpipe qualification run through the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Video games on the Genting Snow Park H & S Stadium in Zhangjiakou on February 17, 2022. (Picture by Marco BERTORELLO / AFP)

Californian-born freestyle skier Gu, competing for China, has grow to be one of many faces of the Beijing Video games and the 18-year-old put herself firmly in competition to win a 3rd medal, and second gold, by ending simply prime of qualifying within the halfpipe.

Double Olympic champion Shiffrin made an excellent begin within the alpine mixed as she tried to win a primary medal at this Video games.

The American failed to complete her first two occasions, earlier than ending means out of the medals within the subsequent two.

USA’s Mikaela Shiffrin concentrates earlier than to take the beginning of the ladiess downhill first coaching session through the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Video games on the Yanqing Nationwide Alpine Snowboarding Centre in Yanqing on February 12, 2022. (Picture by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

However she was completely poised to win a medal within the mixed after posting the fifth-fastest downhill time forward of the slalom — a self-discipline by which she is a four-time phrase champion and Olympic gold medallist in 2014.

In an indication of the help she is receiving from her opponents, Shiffrin revealed she had used skis for the downhill belonging to Italian Sofia Goggia, who received a silver medal within the downhill correct.

“She truly wrote a small message on them… I noticed it and I virtually began crying,” Shiffrin stated.

Canada and the USA face off for the gold medal within the ladies’s ice hockey, however North America’s involvement within the males’s competitors was ended when Sweden beat Canada within the quarter-finals on Wednesday.

After Thursday’s early motion, Norway prime the medals desk with 13 golds, Germany have 10 and the USA have eight.

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