Valieva back on the ice after four-year doping ban

Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva was greeted by cheering fans as she returned to the ice in her home country after serving a four-year doping ban.

Now 19, she is taking part in the Russian Skate Jumping Championship in Moscow, where she came fourth in the individual category and advanced to the second day of competition on Sunday.

She is also competing in the duet event with Mark Kondratiuk, and told state TV: "I love this sport and am so happy to be here."

Supporters in the crowd unfurled a banner that read "We waited" and threw soft toys onto the ice.

However, her comeback is not in time for her to take part in the Winter Olympics, which start in Italy next week, because she missed the qualifiers.

At the age of 15, Valieva helped her country win a team gold medal at the last Winter Olympics in Beijing in February 2022, becoming the first female skater to land a quadruple jump during a Games.

Shortly afterwards, though, it emerged that she had tested positive for heart medication trimetazidine - classed as a performance-enhancing drug - at the Russian Figure Skating Championships six weeks earlier.

A Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada) investigation concluded Valieva bore "no fault or negligence" for the violation.

But the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) upheld an appeal by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) and she was stripped of her medal, with a suspension backdated to 25 December 2021.

Valieva told an arbitration panel that her positive test could have been caused by a strawberry dessert prepared by her grandfather on the same chopping board he used to crush his heart pills.

Another suggestion put forward was that she might have shared a glass used by her grandfather to dissolve his medication, or that her food or drink was sabotaged.

However, Cas found that Valieva's explanation "was not corroborated by any concrete evidence".

When the ban was announced, Wada warned that the "doping of children is unforgivable" and called for adult coaches and support staff involved in such cases to face sporting sanctions as well as criminal charges.

However, the Russian government criticised the ruling as a "politicised" decision.

When the positive test result came to light during the 2022 Games, a provisional ban was lifted by a court, with the youngster allowed to compete in the women's singles event she had been favourite to win.

However, Valieva left the ice in tears after a number of falls and stumbles, with her performance only good enough for fourth place.

If she wishes to make an Olympic comeback, she must wait until 2030, having missed out on next month's Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina.

Two Russian figure skaters - Adeliia Petrosian and Viktoriia Safonova - have secured places at the Games, but will have to compete as Individual Neutral Athletes (AINs) because the country is banned from many sports as a result of its war against Ukraine.