Winter Olympics: Kamila Valieva finishes fourth, letting IOC off the hook after testing positive for a banned substance
- The IOC had vowed to abandon the traditional flower ceremony if Valieva had won a medal in the figure skating
- Russia’s Anna Shcherbakova took gold ahead of compatriot Alexandra Trusova and Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto after the free skate
Figure skating officials are probably breathing a lot easier now, much relieved that embattled Russian Kamila Valieva failed to make the podium in the Beijing Winter Olympics’ women’s figure skating competition on Thursday.
The 15-year-old at the centre of a doping controversy was unable to build on her brilliant performance in the short programme two days ago, scoring 141.93 points to finish fourth behind compatriot Anna Shcherbakova, whose 175.75 in Thursday’s free skate was enough for gold with a total of 255.95.
Another Russian, Alexandra Trusova, took silver on 251.73 with the highest score of the day, 177.13, while Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto won bronze on 233.13.
As the last skater out of 25, Valieva needed to score better than 173.79 to take gold, but she fell twice and left the floor looking disappointed as the audience gave her a loud cheer. Valieva was seen sobbing in the kiss-and-cry area after her scores were read.
Had she won a medal, the International Olympic Committee said it would not hold a flower ceremony because she tested positive for banned angina drug trimetazidine on December 25, with the results only revealed on February 8.
