Winter Olympics another suffers blow after Russian Kamila Valieva’s positive dope test

Pékin, China - Russian teenage figure skater Kamila Valieva tested positive for a banned substance, Beijing Olympics testers confirmed Friday, while American snowboarding legend Shaun White finished an agonising fourth in his final appearance.

After concerns about Covid, human rights and man-made snow in the build-up to the Olympics in the Chinese capital, doping became the latest controversy to rock the Games.

Reports of doping had swirled around the prodigious 15-year-old Valieva after the medals ceremony for the figure skating team event - in which she played a starring role to lead Russia to gold - was delayed this week.

On Friday, soon after she was seen practising on the ice in Beijing, the International Testing Agency (ITA) confirmed traces of the banned substance trimetazidine were found in a sample she gave in December.

Valieva now faces a fight to stay at the Games and take part in the women's individual event, which starts on February 15 and for which she is the favourite.

Her case will be decided by the Court of Arbitration for Sport before then.

It is just the latest doping scandal surrounding Russian athletes in recent years at Olympic Games.

Russian competitors are taking part in Beijing as the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) after the nation was banned because of a massive state-sponsored doping scheme at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, which it hosted.

"Such cases are not helpful to the Games," said International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams on Friday, as the Games reeled from yet another doping scandal.

The Russian Olympic Committee said that Valieva had the right to compete in Beijing and that her team gold medal should stand.

The Kremlin pledged its support too, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling