Figure skating favourite Valieva cleared to compete in Games despite doping

"When I was three years old I would tell my mother, I want to be an Olympic champion," she said after she led the Russians to gold in the team event on February 7.  

"I believe my next dream will come true too," she added, an apparent reference to the women's individual competition which starts on Tuesday.

She will compete in that but under intense scrutiny after the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday cleared her to remain at the Beijing Olympics despite failing a doping test before the Games.

And if she wins, her cherished gold is at risk of being snatched away, along with the team gold she was instrumental in last week, before the controversy erupted.

Prior to all this, Valieva had seemed unstoppable, winning every major competition she entered in the 2021-22 season.  

Her ability to land the most difficult jumps, apparently effortlessly, is matched by a talent for passionate performance and balletic grace. 

The teenager came to Beijing fresh off the back of winning the Russian and European Championships -- and promptly became the first woman to land a quadruple jump in Olympic competition last week. 

Former figure skater Katarina Witt said Valieva "is not to blame here".

Witt won gold in 1984 and 1988 for East Germany -- whose entire medal-winning strategy has since been revealed to have been based on state-sponsored doping.

"As an athlete, you always follow the advice of your confidants, in this case she probably followed her coach and medical team," Witt wrote on Facebook. "You are taught from a very young age to trust them."  

She added: "No doping would have helped her to land these (quads)!!!"

Russian competitors are taking part in Beijing as the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) after the nation was banned