Winter Olympics: Kamila Valieva prepares to skate as IOC meets athletes awaiting medals
- Published
Kamila Valieva helped the Russian Olympic Committee to victory in the team figure skating event before it was announced she had failed a drugs test
24th Winter Olympic Games |
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Hosts: Beijing, China Dates: 4-20 February |
Coverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; listen on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds; live text and highlights on BBC Sport website and mobile app |
Hours before Kamila Valieva prepares to skate, the Russian Olympic Committee said it would "categorically disagree" with any asterisk next to the results if she finishes in the top three.
The Russian, 15, is favourite to win the Olympic women's event on Thursday but is at the centre of controversy after a court ruled she could compete despite a failed drugs test.
Earlier, US athletes whose medals for the team event are on hold because of the case met International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.
The Americans, who finished behind the Russian Olympic Committee, have said they would like to go home with their medals, United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) chief executive Sarah Hirshland said.
"It's unfair to these athletes, not only on our team, but all the athletes who show up here and expect the integrity of the competition to be intact, and we did not give it to them and that's not right," she said.
The IOC says there will be no medal ceremony if Valieva finishes in the top three in the women's event, while the one from the team event is also still pending until the anti-doping case is closed.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams confirmed a meeting had taken place between the US skaters and Bach, but not with the third-placed Japanese because they "told us they fully accept the IOC's approach".
He did not divulge details of the meeting but American media reported the athletes had been offered Olympic torches for now instead of medals.
Adams said he believed Bach, who won a fencing gold in 1976, initiated the meeting because as a "former athlete and Olympian himself he wanted to understand how they felt".
"Only by speaking to them can you really hear what they have got to say and what they really, really want rather than everyone expounding what they think they want," he told a news conference.
The ROC has sent a letter to the International Skating Union asking that the team results should stand regardless of the outcome of Valieva's case.
Valieva leads going into Thursday's free skate after an emotional short programme on Tuesday, where she fought back tears after finishing.
She is being allowed to compete after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) ruled against re-imposing a provisional suspension on her.
She discovered on 8 February that she had failed a drugs test for angina drug trimetazidine but then successfully appealed against a Russian Anti-Doping Agency decision to impose a provisional suspension.
That decision was upheld by Cas after appeals by the IOC and others, with the court's ruling pointing to "exceptional circumstances" regarding her age and the timing of the test result, which came during the Games and nearly six weeks after the sample was taken.