Kamila Valieva remains eligible to compete at worlds next month. Will she?

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Kamila Valieva remains eligible to compete at worlds next month. Will she?

As of now, Kamila Valieva is eligible to compete at the World Figure Skating Championships in late March.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport decision that allowed Valieva to compete at the 2022 Winter Olympics despite her ongoing doping case remains in force for all events, according to Travis Tygart, chief executive of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

“While she is free to compete in all competitions, she could voluntarily step aside,” Tygart said in a text message. “Or WADA (the World Anti-Doping Agency) and the Russians should expedite her case to ensure a fair outcome prior to the World Championships and to avoid another media firestorm that neither she nor her competitors should have to endure.”

Even expedited action might not resolve Valieva’s case before Monday’s athlete entry deadline for the World Championships in Montpellier, France. The competition begins March 23.

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Valieva falls, women's singles event ends in anguish, anger and numbness

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Valieva falls, women's singles event ends in anguish, anger and numbness

The scenes were surreal, full of the visceral pain of two Russian teenagers and the numbness of a third, flooded with the thunderous sobbing of a Japanese woman who is 21, all overcome by the swirling maelstrom that had enveloped the women’s singles event at the 2022 Winter Olympics for a week.

There was little joy in any of this when it ended, not for the four skaters who were atop the standings, not for those who watched it, hopefully not for the officials who avoided yet another surreal moment only because a 15-year-old crumbled in front of the world.

No asterisks now will be necessary for the medal results. There will be a formal ceremony Friday in which Anna Shcherbakova (ROC) will receive the gold, Aleksandra Trusova (ROC) the silver, Kaori Sakamoto of Japan the bronze.

Kamila Valieva’s collapse in the free skate made it possible for the International Olympic Committee to continue as planned with the presentation, to pretend that there is something normal about a situation filled with ethical and procedural and judicial questions, many of which likely will not be answered for months, if at all.

All we know with certainty is that Valieva skated this week under the shadow of a positive doping test and the weight of virtually universal agreement that her continued presence as an Olympic competitor was unfair to the other 29 skaters in the women’s field.

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Kamila Valieva adds short program winner to her controversial role

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Kamila Valieva adds short program winner to her controversial role

How do you watch with any pleasure an Olympic event in which the International Olympic Committee has all but called one of the competitors a pariah?

Not just any competitor, but Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, the one who has been favored to win the gold medal in women’s singles, which remains possible after she won Tuesday’s short program.

One whose presence in the event was so controversial the IOC declared there would be no medal ceremony for it anytime soon, and perhaps not for months, should Valieva finish in a medal position.

That there would be a similar delay in the presentation of the medals from last week’s team event, in which Valieva helped the Russian Olympic Committee team finish first while making history as the first woman to land a quadruple jump at the Olympics.

Waiting for Valieva to skate, as the 26th of 30 in the short program starting order, could anyone really give the others the attention their skating deserved?

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At age 11, Nathan Chen set his course for Olympic gold

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At age 11, Nathan Chen set his course for Olympic gold

Nathan Chen vowed publicly to have fun at his second Olympics, to free his head of the anxiety that overwhelmed him four years ago.

Chen remained so true to that pledge that he even broke out a wry smile after his one mistake in a free skate of surpassing difficulty Thursday afternoon.

He handled the free and an equally demanding short program so well on his sport’s biggest stage that Chen won the Olympic gold medal easily at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

But there was nothing easy about the journey that got him here.

“I never thought I would actually be able to make this happen,” Chen said. “It was a pretty daunting mountain.”

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In potential swan song, U.S. figure skater Jason Brown vows to do things his way

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In potential swan song, U.S. figure skater Jason Brown vows to do things his way

Jason Brown is a skater for an earlier time, the one before multiple quadruple jumps became necessary to win medals at major international competitions.

And yet Brown still is a skater for all time, one who has created indelible impressions from the entirety of his programs rather than from instants of outstanding athleticism provided by the revolutionary jumps.

"I have utmost respect for what those guys are doing to push the sport technically," he said this week in China. "I’m just in absolute awe, and I wish I could be one of them as well. But I am going to push the sport in my way."

That is through performances like the one Brown gave Tuesday in the short program at the 2022 Winter Olympics. His four jumps simply were part of a seamless, compelling expression of a traditional Black spiritual, "Sinnerman," as sung by Nina Simone and choreographed by Rohene Ward with references to what Alvin Ailey created for his landmark ballet, "Revelations."

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