Doping control of teenage figure skater sparks global outrage against Russia.

 Figure skater Kamila Valieva of the Russian Olympic Committee during a training session for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics at the Training Rink Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing, China. February 11, 2022. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina

By Julien Pretot, Karolos Grohmann and Iain Axon

BEIJING, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Russia's prodigious figure skater Kamila Valieva's positive doping test ahead of her dazzling Winter Games team gold has cast doubt on the 15-year-old's Olympic future and reignited the Friday the world annoyance by the history of pharmacological intervention of Moscow.

But the Kremlin, already facing diplomatic wrath from the West over a troop buildup near Ukraine, was also defiant on the sporting front, calling Valieva's case a "misunderstanding."

"Raise your head, you are Russian," urged the government spokesman, Dmitry Peskov. "Go with pride and beat everyone."

The teenager had become the first woman to perform a quadruple jump at the Olympics on Monday, winning gold in team figure skating with the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC).

However, the International Testing Agency (ITA) said he had tested positive for the banned heart drug Trimetazidine in a urine sample collected by Russian authorities on December 25, although confirmation did not come until this week.

Valieva has to compete again on Tuesday in the women's singles event. By then, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) should rule on her case from a closed boardroom on the second floor of a Beijing hotel.

Valieva is one of the youngest Olympians to test positive.

Many fans and other athletes were furious at how Valieva came to have a banned drug in her system, blaming coaches, doctors and authorities.

"It's a shame, and responsible adults should be banned from the sport forever," said the great German figure skater Katarina Witt. "What they knowingly did to him, if true, cannot be surpassed in inhumanity and brings infinite tears to my athlete's heart."

"HONEST" MEDAL?

Russian athletes are already competing in Beijing as the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) - without their flag or national anthem - due to past sanctions for state-sponsored doping.

The latest controversy erupted when a Swedish testing lab reported Tuesday that Valieva's sample had come back positive, the day after she stunned the world at the Capital Indoor Stadium.

He questions why there was such a delay between his test and the result, which allowed him to travel to Beijing.

Russian Olympic Committee President Stanislav Pozdnyakov said Valieva's event may have been deliberately delayed to coincide with the final of the team competition.

The ROC said it was taking extensive measures to protect its athletes and keep an "honestly" won gold, adding that Valieva's tests were negative before and after December 25.

In an Instagram post depicting Valieva as an angel, the ROC urged fans to show their support for "a very young, fragile and lovely girl" as she "faced the toughest test" of her life.

Russia's own anti-doping agency RUSADA placed a provisional suspension on Valieva following Tuesday's result, lifting it a day later following an appeal. RUSADA said it was investigating her support team and attributed the delay in results to COVID-19 cases in the Swedish laboratory, the TASS news agency reported.

With their reputations for impartiality at stake, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), International Skating Union (ISU) and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) have said they will ask CAS to reinstate the suspension."We have a 100% anti-doping policy," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said.

KEEP SKATING

Valieva, dressed in a navy blue sweatshirt and black tights under padded shorts, returned to skating in practice Friday afternoon.The controversy has delayed the medal ceremony for the team event, in which the United States and Japan await after taking the silver and bronze positions. Canada was fourth.

Travis Tygart, head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), expressed sympathy for Valieva but said his country could use new laws to go after those around her.

"Clean athletes deserve better, and this poor young lady deserves better," he told Reuters. "She is being torn apart (for doping) as well as being abused by the Russian state system."

Former WADA deputy chief Rob Koehler said world bodies tasked with eradicating doping are to blame for being too lenient with Russia in the past.