Kamila Valieva leads ROC 1-2 in women’s figure skating short program after doping controversy

The eyes of the sporting world were fixed on Beijing's Capital Indoor Stadium on Tuesday evening.

On another day – in a parallel universe perhaps — they might have been there to see one of the most talented 15-year-old skaters of all time perform in the individual short program purely for her obvious and undeniable sporting ability.

Instead, most were there for the biggest story of these Games – a figure skating competition irreparably compromised in as far as no medals will be awarded at these Games should the subject of the drugs controversy finish in the top three.

Kamila Valieva, under the most intense speculation from just about every person in attendance, received a huge cheer when she glided onto the ice, but she is no longer the carefree superstar of last Monday's team's event.

In fact, she looked extraordinarily stressed, drained by the spotlight that has been focused on her since Tuesday, something she admitted on Monday to Russian TV station, Channel One.

She stumbled on the triple axel, a move she'd normally perform in her sleep – she nailed a quadruple in the teams event, after all – but otherwise put together a clean but unspectacular run to get a huge score of 82.16 and the lead.

Her ROC teammate Anna Shcherbakova sits second on 80.20, with Japan's Kaori Sakamoto in third with 79.84.

Valieva did not look relieved by the high score, the relatively clean run.

Instead, she looked drawn out as she clutched a teddy bear, her coach beside her, as she awaited her score.

The whole scene served as a painful reminder of her juvenility.

Her position at the apex of the field heading into Thursday's free skate will only heighten the interest and speculation in a case that will drag on well after the conclusion of the Games,