KYODO NEWS - 4 hours ago - 11:42 | Sports, Olympics, All
Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva reportedly failed a pre-competition doping test ahead of the Beijing Olympics, Russian media reported Wednesday, possibly meaning Japan will be elevated to team silver.
The Russian Olympic Committee team dominated the event, beating the United States by nine points for gold, but its 15-year-old women's singles entrant Valieva may now face sanction, according to the RBC and Kommersant newspapers.
Valieva was a cut above in the event, beating Japanese skaters Wakaba Higuchi and Kaori Sakamoto with relative ease in the short and free programs, respectively. Japan won bronze, two points short of the United States team.
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Canada placed fourth and would be in line for bronze.
The RBC publication said the Russian skater was found to have a small amount of the banned substance trimetazidine, a drug used to treat the symptoms of angina, in her system in a test before the Feb. 4-20 games.
Russia is competing as the ROC at the Beijing Games as part of punishment imposed after a state-sponsored doping program was uncovered spanning multiple Olympic Games.
Russian bobsledder Nadezhda Sergeeva tested positive for the same substance at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang and was disqualified.