The medal ceremony for the team figure skating event was postponed on Wednesday in Beijing due to a suspected positive drug test from the gold medal-winning Russian team.
“We have athletes that have won medals involved,” IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said at the daily news briefing. Adams said that “legal consultation” was required before any medals could be presented.
“Everyone is doing absolutely everything that the situation can be resolved as soon as possible,” Adams said, though he cautioned, “as you know, legal issues can sometimes drag on.”
Kamila Valieva, a 15-year-old Russian figure skater, is said to have tested positive for a prohibited drug. Trimetazidine, a drug intended to treat chest pain, was discovered in a sample taken two months before the Olympics, according to multiple Russian media outlets.
But it is still a banned drug in the Olympics.
“The drug trimetazidine does not help an athlete in any way,” Russian journalist Vasily Konov wrote on social media, according to ESPN. “At all. It was found in one single sample in December. A minuscule amount. Nothing in her samples before or since.”
“There is no doping in the conventional sense,” Konov continued. “No! This cardiac drug has no impact on … performance. Now leave Kamila in peace.”
According to Reuters, “Trimetazidine is listed on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) list of metabolic modulators and is prohibited both in and out of competition.” It is used in order to treat angina, which causes severe pain in the chest.
“The ITA is aware of the various reports circulating regarding the postponed medal ceremony for the figure skating team event at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022,” the International Testing Agency (ITA) said in a statement. “Any announcement connected to these events would always be publicly issued on the ITA’s website and not commented on otherwise. No such announcement has been published to date.”
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