What’s Going On With Kamila Valieva?

⛸️🇷🇺 The 15-year-old Russian leads the women’s Olympic figure skating individual competition heading into the medal round starting at 5 a.m. ET this morning.

Earlier this week, the highest legal body in global sports ruled she should be allowed to compete despite failing a pre-Olympic drug test for trimetazidine, a banned heart medication known to increase endurance.

The arbitration panel said it sided with the Russian Olympic Committee over the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), International Olympic Committee (IOC), and US officials for three reasons:

1. Valieva is considered a “protected person” because she’s under 16 years old
2. She would suffer “irreparable harm” if suspended and later found innocent
3. She didn’t have enough time for a full legal process before the Games

If Valieva ends up being ruled ineligible as a result of either Russia or WADA’s ongoing investigations, she and/or Russia could be stripped of their gold medals from the team event, along with any singles medal she may have won. The IOC this week said no medal ceremonies would be held in any event where Valieva came in the top three.

+Other Olympic news:

• Day 12 saw Team USA's medal tally rise to 19, including eight golds; Norway still leads both categories with 28 and 13.
• The US men’s hockey team was eliminated from the Games after going 0-for-5 in an overtime shootout against Slovakia.
• As of Wednesday night, women had won 13 out of Team USA’s 19 medals, with four coming in mixed events.