BEIJING — U.S. anti-doping chief Travis Tygart said Friday that the testing delay that allowed Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva to compete at the Olympics was "absolutely inexcusable" and "a catastrophic failure of the system that is so egregious, it almost seems intentional."
"I'm not saying that it is [intentional], because I don't know that," Tygart clarified in a phone interview. "But it never should've happened."
The International Testing Agency confirmed Friday that Valieva, the 15-year-old skating sensation, had tested positive for trimetazidine, a banned substance. The sample had been collected on Dec.