Photo: Li Hao/GT

Kamila Valieva, the skater from the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) who was cleared to compete after the recent doping controversy, ranked the fourth at Women's Single Skating event with a score of 224.09 on Thursday at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. Her teammate, Anna Shcherbakova, won the gold with a score of 255.95.

Another ROC athlete Alexandra Trusova took the silver with 251.73, while Japan's Kaori Sakamoto came third with 233.13.

Notably, despite the doping incident, 15-year-old Valieva still won the support from millions of Chinese fans with her brilliant figure skating performance and many expressed their encouragement to this young athlete. After the competition, the hashtag of "Kamila cried" trended on Chinese-twitter like Weibo, with many netizens encouraging her.

"Cheer up Kamila," one netizen wrote. "See you at next Olympic Games," another one said. Some netizens said Valieva is under huge pressure and she was great when she completed the competition.

It is a priority to establish the truth in the case of Valieva in the near future, Russian Sports Minister, Oleg Matytsin, told Rossiya-24 TV channel on Thursday. 

Valieva told Russian media that the situation on "these [past few] days has been very difficult for me." She said she was happy but at the same time "emotionally tired."

Valieva took the lead at Tuesday's Women's Short Program at Beijing 2022 with 82.16 points, followed by teammate Anna Shcherbakova and Japan's Kaori Sakamoto. Chinese figure skater, Zhu Yi, finished 27th at the short program and lost a spot on the next stage.

Valieva has been cleared to continue competing at Beijing 2022 following the doping controversy. "The management of the case after this positive A-sample has not yet been concluded. Only after due process has been followed can it be established whether Ms Valieva infringed the World Anti-Doping Code (WADC) and would have to be sanctioned," Mark Adams, Spokesperson of the IOC, said in a statement released on February 14.

If Valieva finishes amongst the top three competitors in the women's single skating competition, no flower or medal ceremony will take place, according to the statement.