The International Olympic Committee has refused to comment on reports this week about a “legal issue” involving 15-year-old Russian figure skating star Kamila Valieva and a failed drug test.
On Thursday, Susanne Lyons, chair of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, released a statement stressing the importance of upholding Olympic integrity.
“Really the whole credibility of the Olympic Movement and the Paralympic Movement stands teetering on the edge of us saying that we really believe and live the values that we say we stand for,” Lyons told Around the Rings, via Yahoo Sports.
“It is so important to the athletes of the world that the values of this [Olympic] Movement be upheld, and one of the most important values is integrity of sport. And it’s just terribly upsetting to the athletes today to have that wound potentially reopened again.”
The athletes have to compete as the Russian Olympic Committee and are not allowed to use the country’s flag as part of a two-year ban for a state-sponsored doping program.
Valieva practiced Thursday as the scandal continues to dominate international headlines at the 2022 Olympic Games. She is a heavy favorite in the individual competition slated to begin next week.
Multiple reports have linked the star figure skater to a failed drug test taken before Monday’s team competition, in which Valieva’s brilliance led the ROC team to gold. She also became the first woman to land a quad jump at the Olympics — and she did it twice.
Valieva reportedly tested positive for trimetazidine, a heart medication that is considered a banned substance.
The United States won silver and Japan took bronze in the team competition, in which Canada placed fourth. However, Tuesday’s medal ceremony was postponed when reports of a failed drug test on the Russian team began to circulate.
Mark Adams, a spokesperson for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said in a press conference earlier this week that “because there are legal implications involved, I can’t talk very much about it at this stage.”
The International Testing Agency, which is conducting drug testing at Beijing 2022, released a statement saying it is aware of the reports about the situation.
Valieva is considered by the World Anti-Doping Agency to be a “Protected Person” because of her age.
According to the WADA code, it treats Protected Persons “differently than other Athletes in certain circumstances based on the understanding that, below a certain age or intellectual capacity [they] may not possess the mental capacity to understand and appreciate the prohibitions against conduct contained in the Code.”
