#WinterOlympics | World champion wins figure skating gold as Valieva collapses

BEIJING (AP):

A Russian woman was standing atop the figure skating podium at the Beijing Games on Thursday.

It just wasn’t the one anyone expected.

Even the fact that there was a podium was a surprise.

Anna Shcherbakova, the overlooked world champion, delivered a clean performance in her free skate at historic Capital Indoor Stadium to win a stunning gold medal, while teammate Kamila Valieva — at the centre of the latest Russian doping controversy — tumbled out of the medals altogether with a mistake-filled end to her Olympic dream.

“I still haven’t realised that my Olympic Games have ended. I just know that I skated clean,” said Shcherbakova, who was second behind Valieva after the short programme. “I am so happy that I still haven’t realised the result.”

Shcherbakova landed both of her quads to finish with 255.95 points, edging out another teammate, Alexandra Trusova, who landed five somewhat shaky quads of her own. Trusova finished four points back in second place but wasn’t pleased with the judges, especially given the difficulty of her programme.

“I am not happy with the result,” said Trusova, who, like Valieva, was sobbing after the scores were read. “There is no happiness.”

Kaori Sakamoto of Japan was happy. She took bronze to break up an expected Russian sweep of the Olympic podium.

“I don’t have the big jumps as others would have, which is a big handicap,” said Sakamoto, who doesn’t have a four-rotation quad in her arsenal but hit the cleanest triple axel of the Olympics. “That means I had to have perfect elements.”

She did Thursday night, too. Just like Shcherbakova.

Meanwhile, Valieva was inconsolable in the kiss-and-cry area. The 15-year-old phenom was heavily favoured to win gold but is headed home with nothing from the women’s program and a looming investigation into her positive drug test.

Valieva was shaky on an opening quad salchow, then stepped out on a triple axel and fell altogether on a quad toe loop-triple toe loop combination. Valieva fell again on her other quad toe loop, keeping her from completing that combination, and spun out on another jump late in the programme — though by that point, her fate was sealed.

She did not speak to reporters after a performance that made Shcherbakova’s look even better.

Moments after Valieva departed the arena, workers began setting up for a flower ceremony that the International Olympic Committee said wouldn’t take place if she was in the top three. Medals will be handed out Friday in a ceremony that also would not have occurred in Beijing had Valieva reached the podium.

Valieva had tested positive for a banned heart medication at the Russian championships in December, but the result was not revealed until last week, shortly after she helped to win a team gold medal that is now also in doubt.

She was cleared to compete earlier this week by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which ruled that she had protected status as a minor and would suffer “irreparable harm” if she was not allowed to perform. The court did not rule on the full scope of the case, though, leaving that to anti-doping investigators in the future.

The court’s decision cast a polarising shadow over one of the marquee events of the Winter Games.