ROC skater Kamila Valieva tested positive for banned substance, ITA confirms

The future of the 15-year-old Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva at these Winter Olympics remains in limbo despite the Independent Testing Agency (ITA) confirming that she tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine on Christmas Day.

Valieva, who captured the hearts of the world when she became the first female skater to perform a quad at the Games as the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) won a brilliant team gold at the start of this week, has appealed her provisional suspension and hopes to compete again in the individual competition next Tuesday.

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However whether she is allowed to compete or not – along with whether the ROC team can keep its team gold – will be contested in a courtroom after the world anti-doping agency requested the court of arbitration for sport to convene on the issues. Valieva was back practising on Friday, when she looked understandably nervous and fell three times during her free skate routine.

Afterwards she covered her face when walking through the mixed zone and didn’t answer questions. However when asked by a journalist whether she was clean and had taken drugs, she appeared to shake her head.

Olga Yermolina, spokeswoman for the Russian Figure Skating Federation, said that Valiyeva’s training had gone worse than usual because she was “nervous” and “in a bad mood”.

“It is understandable,” she said. “She is not in an information vacuum.”

Earlier the Independent Testing Agency had confirmed that a sample that was taken when Valieva competed at the Russian Championships on Christmas Day had been found to have trimetazidine, a banned heart medication, in it.

But the results of Valieva’s sample, which was