No medal ceremony if Kamila Valieva wins figure skating event

On Tuesday, Kamila Valieva, one of the Olympics’ youngest and biggest stars, will take to the ice and, if all goes as she plans, perform spinning jump after spinning jump on her way to an expected victory in women’s figure skating’s signature event.

But if she succeeds, she will not receive a medal. And neither will any of her competitors.

Olympic officials said Monday that they planned to withhold medals in any event in which Valieva, 15, places in the top three until after her doping case is resolved, perhaps months from now.

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The extraordinary decision has frustrated and angered many in the sport who say honest athletes are suffering unjustly because of Valieva’s presence in the competition after she failed a drug test, Russia’s history of flouting the rules and a significant failure by the system meant to weed out drug cheats.

“It’s all just so unfair,” said Adam Rippon, a former Olympic skater who is coaching the US figure skater Mariah Bell at the Games. “And now it’s also so unfair to all of these ladies because their whole Olympic experience is now wrapped up in the controversy because a country doesn’t want to play by the damn rules.”

Valieva, whose positive test for a banned heart medication from a urine sample taken in December was revealed late last week, is heavily favoured to win the women’s singles competition, which begins Tuesday and concludes Thursday. If she finishes in the top three, neither she nor the other medalists will receive the traditional flowers, medal or moment on the podium.

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The International Olympic Committee said in a statement that it would conduct “dignified medal ceremonies once the case of Ms Valieva has been concluded.” Its decision to potentially withhold medals from clean athletes came hours after a panel of arbitrators declined to reinstate a suspension that most likely would have ended Valieva’s Olympics.

The World Anti-Doping Agency and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee reacted angrily to the arbitrators’ decision, expressing disappointment and questioning both the panel’s logic and its commitment to fairness.

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