Russian skater Kamila Valieva will be allowed to continue competing in the Olympics despite failing a pre-games drug test, the Court of Arbitration for Sport rules

• Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva is cleared to continue competing in the Olympics, the CAS ruled Monday.
• Valieva failed a pre-Games drug test in December, placing her at the center of a doping scandal.

Kamila Valieva, the 15-year-old Russian figure skating star at the center of a doping scandal, will be allowed to continue competing at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled Monday.

The CAS announced it has lifted a provisional suspension on Valieva, clearing the way for the teen to compete on Tuesday at the women's individual figure skating competition. She is favored to win the event, which ends Thursday, and earn her second gold medal of this year's games.

However, the Monday ruling doesn't decide if Valieva can keep the gold medal she won at the women's team event — it only determines if she can continue skating at the games. The entirety of Valieva's case will be decided in a hearing at an unspecified later date.

Valieva had been automatically suspended after testing positive for the banned heart drug trimetazidine in a drug test conducted on December 25. Trimetazidine is normally used to prevent angina attacks but is taken by some athletes as a way to boost their endurance.

The CAS said it considered the fact that Valieva didn't test positive during the games, but added that there were
"serious issues of untimely notification of the results of the athlete's anti-doping test."

Russia's antidoping agency, RUSADA, said it had received Valieva's positive result only after she won gold with the rest of the Russian team on February 10 — six weeks after the test was administered.

In its Monday ruling, the CAS said the delay negatively affected Valieva's ability to "establish certain legal requirements for her benefit," and that the late notification wasn't her fault.

"In particular, the panel considered that preventing the athlete from competing at the Olympic Games would cause her irreparable harm in these circumstances," the ruling read.