Russian skater Kamila Valieva will not receive a medal if she wins again in Beijing, Olympic committee says

• Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva can keep competing at the Beijing Olympics, authorities said.
• 15-year-old Valieva failed a drug test in December and was provisionally suspended from competing.

Kamila Valieva, the 15-year-old Russian skater at the center of a doping scandal, will not receive a medal if she finishes in the top three of her next event until her case is closed, the International Olympic Committee said Monday.

The IOC statement came hours after the Court of Arbitration for Sport announced that it had lifted Valieva's provisional suspension, meaning she is allowed to continue competing despite failing a drugs test in December.

Valieva was provisionally banned after testing positive for the prohibited substance trimetazidine, a medicine usually used to treat angina attacks but is also known to improve endurance in athletes.

While she can still compete at Beijing, she will not get a medal at the games if she — as is widely expected — finishes in the top three in the women's individual event, the IOC said.

"Should Ms. Valieva finish amongst the top three competitors in the Women's Single Skating competition, no flower ceremony and no medal ceremony will take place during the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022," the IOC's statement said.

This effectively means the top three finishers in the event will have to wait until Valieva's case is closed to get their Olympic medals.

Although the IOC did not explicitly state its reasoning, it seems likely that it took this step to avoid having to re-award medals should Valieva's doping ban be reinstated. In that case, whichever athlete finished fourth would be promoted to third and take the bronze medal.

The IOC also said that Valieva and her Russian Olympic Committee teammates will not yet be presented with their gold medals for winning the team event during the opening weekend of the Olympics.

No medal ceremony will take place during the games for that event, the IOC said, meaning the US and Japan, which finished second and third, will also have to wait for their medals.

Canada, which finished fourth, would get bronze if the ROC was disqualified from the contest due to Valieva's positive test.

"In the interest of fairness to all athletes and the NOCs [National Olympic Committes] concerned, it would not be appropriate to hold the medal ceremony for the figure skating team event during the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 as it would include an athlete who on the one hand has a positive A-sample, but whose violation of the anti-doping rules has not yet been established on the other hand," the IOC said.