Olympics-Valieva doping case to go unanswered in CAS ruling on Monday

By Karolos Grohmann and Julien Pretot

BEIJING (Reuters) -Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva's future at the Beijing Games will be decided when sport's highest court rules on Monday, but her doping case will remain unanswered, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said.

A Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) hearing in Beijing that lasted into the early hours of the morning did not address the teen's positive test for a banned heart drug on Dec. 25.

The positive result was not reported for more than six weeks, allowing Valieva to compete on Feb. 7 with the winning Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) team.

The CAS ruling, expected at 2 p.m. Beijing time (0600GMT), will only deal with a provisional suspension lifted by the Russian anti-doping agency (RUSADA) after Valieva's drug test was revealed, the IOC said.

That ruling will determine whether she can compete in the women's single event on Tuesday.

The awarding of medals for the team event, however, cannot go ahead until the doping case is addressed, said IOC spokesman Mark Adams.

It is not clear whether other members of the ROC team can receive gold medals. Second-placed Team USA and Japan in third are also waiting in the wings. Canada finished fourth.

"That will probably not be sorted out during this Games and that is something regrettable, but we have to follow the process," Adams said.

"We would have liked, and have asked for the parties to agree to have the whole (doping) case in its entirety being settled once and for all."

(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann and Julien Pretot; Editing by Peter Rutherford and Ken Ferris)