The performance by the skater—who is 15 years old and has been favored to win gold—has been widely anticipated after she tested positive for a banned heart medication as the Olympics were already underway.
Valieva scored high enough in the individual event to take the lead, The New York Times reported. Her score of 82.16 in the short program puts her in first place as she waits to compete in the long program, or free skate, on Thursday.
Still, if she does win a medal as expected, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced Monday that it would not hold a medal ceremony. Some experts believe the decision to forgo the ceremony may be the IOC’s attempt to leave the door open for potentially stripping those medals from Valieva in the future after a doping investigation.
Despite stumbling on her triple axel, Valieva was still able to beat out the other competitors in the end. She and fellow Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) skaters Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova nearly dominated all of the top three spots. Japanese skater Kaori Sakamoto, however, edged Trusova out with her score of 79.84.
Shcherbakova finished in second place with 80.20, per the Times. The scores from the long and short programs will be added together for the final tallies that will decide who wins the medals.
The Russian delegation who watched Valieva’s performance gave her a standing ovation, but few other athletes showed any response after she finished her program, the Times reported.
While many have expressed support for Valieva amid the doping scandal and outrage at her coaches, who some accuse of being responsible for the Russian figure skater’s positive drug test, the decision to let her compete in the individual event has been widely criticized.
Former Olympians Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir, who currently provide commentary for NBC’s figure skating coverage, both condemned the move.
In an interview that aired during the network’s primetime Olympics coverage on Sunday after the Super Bowl, Weir called it a “slap in the face to the Olympic Games, to our sport, and to every athlete that’s ever competed at the Olympics clean.”
Lipinski tweeted Monday that “there is no question in my mind that she should not be allowed to compete” because of the positive drug test.
Valieva tested positive for trimetazidine, a banned heart medication that can boost blood flow and endurance. The sample that contained the drug was taken from Valieva on December 25, but the results did not come back until the Olympics had been underway for days and Valieva had already helped lead the ROC figure skating team to gold in the team event.
Update 2/15/22, 10:10 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information and background.
