Russian media are reporting 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.
Figure skating medal ceremony to come Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Newspapers RBC and Kommersant named the drug as Trimetazidine, which is used to treat angina.
Valieva was part of the Russian Olympic Committee ensemble that won the figure skating team event on Monday ahead of the United States and Japan.
Trimetazidine is listed on the World Anti-Doping Agency's list of metabolic modulators, and is banned in and out of competition.
Russian athletes are competing at the Beijing Games as representatives of ROC, without their flag and national anthem, because of sanctions against their country for previous doping violations.
Any move to penalise Valieva or strip the team of their medal would likely cause an outcry in Russia.
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.
Former Russian pairs skater Tatiana Volosozhar, who won two gold medals at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, offered words of support for Valieva on Instagram, calling for the use of the Russian hashtag #Iwillneverbelieve to send the teenager support on social media.
Her post was "liked" on Instagram by Valieva herself.
Earlier, the International Olympic Committee said a need for "legal consultation" had forced the postponement of the medal ceremony for the figure skating team event in Beijing.
The IOC, International Skating Union and the international agency in charge of drugs testing during the Games all declined to comment on media reports that the delay was caused by a positive drug test.
Valieva 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 yesterday.
In other Olympic news....
* Lindsey Jacobellis won the first gold medal for the United States at the games in women's snowboard cross and finally found redemption after her career-defining fail at the Turin Games 16 years ago.
Jacobellis was within metres of winning the event in 2006 when she threw in a showboating trick, only to fall and get overtaken at the line.
* The Russian Olympic Committee opened the defence of their men's ice hockey title with a tight 1-0 win over Switzerland that hinted at how unpredictable the competition could be without National Hockey League players.
Before North America's NHL pulled out of the Beijing Games due to a COVID-19 surge that created havoc with its schedule, there had been clear medal favourites with Canada and the United States at the top of the list.
* Petra Vlhova won Slovakia's first Olympic Alpine skiing gold medal with victory in a tight women's slalom race on the 'Ice River' course.
Vlhova had an 0.08 advantage over silver medallist Katharina Liensberger of Austria with Switzerland's Wendy Holdener in the bronze medal position just a further four hundredths behind.
Vlhova is the defending overall World Cup champion and current World Cup slalom leader but this is her first Olympic medal.
* A tearful Mikaela Shiffrin questioned whether she could pick herself up and return to competition at the Winter Olympics after skiing out of the slalom and failing to finish for the second race in a row.
The 26-year-old American, who has dominated the technical events in recent years, was eliminated after missing an early gate.
She also crashed out on the first run of the giant slalom on Monday after coming into the race as the defending Olympic champion.
-Reuters