Valieva collapses, Shcherbakova wins figure skating gold

Anna Shcherbakova, the overlooked world champion, delivered a clean performance in her free skate at historic Capital Indoor Stadium to win a stunning gold medal, while teammate Kamila Valieva — at the center of the latest Russian doping controversy — tumbled out of the medals altogether with a mistake-fi lled end to her Olympic dream.

“I still haven’t realized that my Olympic Games have ended. I just know that I skated clean,” said Shcherbakova, who was second behind Valieva after the short program. “I am so happy that I still haven’t realized the result.”

Shcherbakova landed both of her quads to fi nish with 255.95 points, edging out another teammate, Alexandra Trusova, who landed fi ve somewhat shaky quads of her own. Trusova fi nished four points back in second place but wasn’t pleased with the judges, especially given the diffi culty of her program.

Heavily favored Russian teen Kamila Valieva fell twice and had two other big mistakes in her free skate on Thursday, dropping to fourth place and allowing the International Olympic Committee to avoid what could have been one of the most awkward moments in the history of the Games.

Valieva was permitted to skate despite failing a doping test weeks before the Beijing Games. She was the leader after the short program but faltered badly in the free skate and teammate Anna Shcherbakova won the gold medal after a near-fl awless program.