Doping rink stink erupts

RUSSIAN figure skater Kamila Valieva will learn if she is to be thrown out of the Beijing Olympics for a positive drug test in coming hours, as a new Cold War on Ice escalates between Russia and the US.

Russia is accused of revisiting a doping low that was the playbook of the East German regime: Drugging young athletes. In this case Valieva, 15, returned a positive test to a heart medication, trimetazidine.

It has been banned by WADA for the past eight years because of its ability to boost an athlete’s endurance.

Skating’s two-time Olympic champion Katarina Witt was horrified that a young skater has allegedly been abused by those around her.

“What they knowingly did to her, if true, cannot be surpassed in inhumanity,” she said.

Valieva is considered the next great ladies skater, and she managed to perform the first quad jump in Olympic competition last week.

Insiders at the IOC say that they have acted as soon as they were aware of Valieva’s drug case on Monday and fast tracked a case in the CAS, as well as suspending the medal presentation for the team’s event, where Russia beat the United States for the gold medal.

A court result is imminent as Valieva’s next competition is on Tuesday.