Facing intense scrutiny, Kamila Valieva, the 15-year-old Russian skating star, stumbled out of her opening triple axel but still won the women’s Olympic short program on Tuesday.
She is being permitted to compete in the Beijing Games despite testing positive for a banned drug. An arbitration panel ruled that she could face “irreparable harm” by being suspended, given that her doping case has not yet been resolved.
Valieva, who holds her arms over her head while jumping to increase the difficulty of her routine, rescued 5.26 out of a base value of 8 points on the triple axel.