The Russian figure skating star at the center of doping questions at the Beijing Olympics will be allowed to continue to compete despite failing a doping test weeks ago, but officials will not conduct an awards ceremony if she wins her events or hand out medals in any event until her case is resolved.
The International Olympic Committee took the extraordinary step of serving notice that the athlete, Kamila Valieva, 15, would stay off the podium, as would the other medalists in her events, because of lingering doubts about her eligibility. Valieva became a face of the Games as she helped her Russian team win an earlier competition, and is widely seen as the favorite to win the women’s singles event that begins on Tuesday.
“Should Ms. Valieva finish amongst the top three competitors in the women’s singles skating competition, no flower ceremony and no medal ceremony will take place during the Olympic Winter Games,” the Olympic committee said in a statement. It also confirmed that no ceremony will be conducted during the Games for the team event that Russia won last week.
It said it would conduct “dignified medal ceremonies once the case of Ms. Valieva has been concluded.”
The I.O.C.’s decision came hours after a panel of arbitrators, ruling on a narrow procedural point, cleared Valieva to continue competing in Beijing. The panel said it would be unfair and cause “irreparable harm” to Valieva if she were barred from the competition. The I.O.C. had asked the panel to reinstate a suspension that would have kept her out of competition.
In its decision, the panel said it “considered fundamental principles of fairness, proportionality, irreparable harm and the balance of interests” between Valieva and the organizations seeking to bar her from the Games. Also, it noted, Valieva was a minor and did not test positive at the Beijing Games, though she could face penalties when her case is examined after the Olympics.
The panel was not charged with deciding whether Russia should keep the gold medal in the team competition, a prize earned with the help of Valieva’s stunning performances. Nor did it consider the question of whether Valieva was guilty of knowingly using a banned drug.
The World Anti-Doping Agency expressed “disappointment” in the decision, as did United States and Canadian Olympic officials, whose athletes might be affected by any altering of the finish order in the team event. (The United States was second, the Canadians fourth.) The antidoping agency said in a statement that the arbitration panel had, in clearing Valieva, ignored specific provisions of the antidoping code that governs athletes, and which required a suspension — even for a teenager.
“We are disappointed by the messages this sends,” Sarah Hirshland, the chief executive of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee said, adding, “This appears to be another chapter in the systemic and pervasive disregard for clean sport by Russia.”
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