Russian media reported on Wednesday (local time) that 15-year-old figure skater Kamila Valieva had tested positive for a banned drug, after the ceremony to present her and her team mates with their Olympic gold medals was postponed for unexplained legal reasons.
Newspapers RBC and Kommersant named the drug as Trimetazidine, which is typically used to treat chest pain.
The news broke late at night in Beijing, where Valieva was part of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) ensemble that won the figure skating team event on Monday ahead of the United States and Japan.
Reuters attempted to reach the ROC chef de mission for comment but his phone was not answering. The ROC earlier declined to comment on reports that Valieva had returned a positive test.
The teenager delivered one of the highlights of the Beijing Games so far when she landed the first quadruple jumps by a woman in Olympic competition. She was one of four ROC skaters who did not appear at their practice sessions on Wednesday.
Figure skating is a prestige sport for Russia, in which it has an outstanding record at Olympic and world championships. Any move to penalise Valieva or strip the team of their medals would likely cause a national outcry.
Prominent journalist Vasily Konov, deputy general producer at Russian sports channel Match-TV, said without citing sources that the sample in question had been taken two months ago.
"The drug trimetazidine does not help an athlete in any way. At all. It was found in one single sample in December. A minuscule amount. Nothing in her samples before or since," he wrote on social media.
"There is no doping in the conventional sense. No! This cardiac drug has no impact on ... performance. Now leave Kamila in peace."
Reuters
