Jamaica’s 2016 Rio Olympic silver medalist, Christania Williams, has expressed her overwhelming emotions after securing her first-ever podium finish as a bobsleigh athlete at the European Championships in Lillehammer on Sunday.
Jamaica faces the novel prospect of having triplets representing at the Olympics; and the Jamaica Ski Federation aims to provide full support for Henniyah, Henri IV and Helaina Rivers’ quest to qualify for the 2026 Winter Games in Italy.
Yarnold, from Sevenoaks in Kent, snatched victory on her fourth and final run with a new track record to make it back-to-back gold medals after her triumph at Sochi 2014.
Laura Deas claimed bronze as Britain won two medals in the same event for the first time at a Winter Olympics.
Yarnold went into the final day 0.10secs off the pace after complaining of feeling dizzy, but cut the deficit as overnight leader Jacqueline Lolling of Germany slipped back to third place after the third round.
The Sochi 2014 champion trailed Austria’s Janine Flock by 0.02 ahead of the final run, meaning Yarnold was the penultimate slider to take to the track and had to watch her rival’s performance.
The Briton clocked a track record of 51.46secs to take the lead in thrilling fashion and Flock floundered, relinquishing her spot on the podium to spark jubilant celebrations among a sizeable British contingent at the Olympic Sliding Centre, including Welsh racer Deas.
An emotional Yarnold, who became Britain’s most decorated Winter Olympian, said: “I’m overwhelmed and exhausted. I don’t really know how it happened.
“After the first run I wasn’t sure whether I was going to be able to finish the race because my chest infection was so bad I was struggling to breathe and I got here only with the help of my team.
“I guess four years ago, three years ago, the whole team all dared to dream that this was possible and I just went with them all and we managed it.”
With Deas finishing third behind Lolling, and Izzy Atkin having earlier secured bronze in the women’s ski slopestyle, it was the first time Britain had won three Winter Olympic medals on the same day, overtaking the record two from Chamonix in 1924.
Valieva tested positive for performance-enhancing drug trimetazidine in December 2021, but was able to compete in the 2022 Games in Beijing at the age of 15.
The Russian was cleared to take to the ice in "exceptional circumstances", largely due to her age ensuring she was considered to be a "protected person" under World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) rules.
It was revealed on Friday that RUSADA will not sanction Valieva, now aged 16, aside from the disqualification of her results on the date of the sample collection on Christmas Day in 2021.
She won a team gold medal in Beijing and won the European Championships singles title in Tallinn last year.
WADA has requested a copy of the full reasoned decision made by RUSADA and "will not hesitate to exercise its right of appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, as appropriate."
A WADA statement added: "The decision in this case comes in the wake of WADA's announcement on 8 November 2022 that following an unacceptable delay by RUSADA in rendering a decision in this matter, the Agency had referred it directly to CAS.
"In that referral, WADA sought a four-year period of ineligibility for the athlete. Following a full review of the RUSADA decision, WADA will consider what its next steps will be so that the matter is dealt with as quickly as possible and without further undue delay.
"WADA can make no further comment until it has received and reviewed the reasoned decision and case file."
Jamaican Olympian Tyquendo Tracey made his mark in his winter sports debut over the weekend, finishing 21st in the two-man bobsleigh event at the IBSF World Championships in Lake Placid on Sunday. However, the sprinter-turned-bobsledder was quick to clarify that his participation in winter sports does not signal his retirement from track and field.
Valieva tested positive for performance-enhancing drug trimetazidine on December 25, 2021, but was able to compete in the 2022 Games in Beijing at the age of 15.
The Russian was cleared to take to the ice in "exceptional circumstances", largely due to her age ensuring she was considered to be a "protected person" under WADA rules.
She won a team gold medal in Beijing and won the European Championships singles title in Tallinn last year.
In January, a Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) disciplinary tribunal deemed Valieva – now 16 – bore "no fault or negligence" for the positive test, meaning the only sanction she faced was the disqualification of her results on the day of the initial sample collection.
WADA requested a copy of the full reasoning for further inspection and is now taking the case to CAS, believing RUSADA's decision falls foul of its code.
A statement, released on Tuesday, read: "Further to its statement of January 13, 2023, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has carefully reviewed the full reasoned decision and file related to the case of Russian Olympic Committee figure skater, Kamila Valieva.
"Accordingly, WADA considers the finding by the disciplinary tribunal of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency that the athlete bore 'no fault or negligence' to be wrong under the terms of the World Anti-Doping Code in this case and has exercised its right to lodge an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
"Within the appeal, WADA is seeking a four-year period of ineligibility and disqualification of all the athlete's results from the date of the sample collection on December 25, 2021. As it has sought to do throughout this process, WADA will continue to push for this matter to proceed without further undue delay.
"Given the case is now pending before CAS, WADA can make no further comment at this time."
The American has a place in Games history under lock and key already, as the first and so far only snowboarder to win three gold medals.
"I really want to finish my career strongly on my own terms and put down some solid runs. If I could do that, I'll be very happy," White said on Saturday.
"I don't know how many kids really aspire to be a cowboy and get to be a cowboy. At a young age, snowboarding is what I wanted more than anything and to be walking in these shoes today is just incredible. It feels so amazing, I'm so proud."
White said he came close to missing a Games bus on Friday night because he was too occupied with trading USA team pins – an Olympics ritual that sees stars and participants swapping the colourful pin badges, amassing collections to take away as mementos.
"I'm having as much fun as I can," White said.
It is worth remembering what White has brought to the Winter Olympics and snow sport as a whole.
At the X Games – the Mardi Gras of extreme sports – White has totted up 23 medals, of which 15 have been gold. Thirteen of those gold medals have come in snowboarding, but two came in skateboarding, highlighting his prowess there.
Eight of his X Games golds came in the halfpipe event, with the other five achieved in slopestyle, the snowboarding variant that features obstacles.
He was the first snowboarder to score a perfect 100 in the halfpipe in the Winter X Games, achieving that 10 years ago in Aspen, Colorado.
White triumphed first at the Games as a 19-year-old in Turin in 2006, defending his title in 2010 in Vancouver, and recovering from the jolt of missing out on the Sochi podium four years later by landing gold again at Pyeongchang.
His score of 97.75 in his second run at Pyeongchang stands as an Olympic record.
His final bid for glory is coming up, with men's halfpipe qualifying taking place on Wednesday, before Zhangjiakou's Genting Snow Park stages the final runs on Friday.
"It will be my last competition, which is pretty special," said White, in a news conference on Saturday.
It was already known this would be his final Olympics.
Now 35, White has been snowboarding since the age of six. The red-haired Californian goes by the nickname of 'The Flying Tomato', and he says the experience of knowing this is his farewell Olympics is "pretty heavy, but I'm enjoying it".
"It's been a beautiful run. Let's see this through and see what's next," he said. "I definitely don't think I'll be leaving the sport anytime soon. All these people within an industry that ride backcountry and pipes. I'm just excited for the next chapter."
Sundling took the women's sprint glory ahead of compatriot Maja Dahlqvist, with Sweden now having six medals overall at Beijing 2022.
The champion labelled the track "the toughest I have competed on", and relished having Dahlqvist and another Swedish athlete, Emma Ribom, for company. Ribom finished sixth.
"It feels good to have them by my side at the start line, it feels like we are in a training session but this is the Olympics," Sundling said. "It was fun to be three Swedes in the final, it's amazing."
Dahlqvist found the event so taxing that she threw up after crossing the finish line in second place.
She said: "I was thinking it's the last thing I ever do and that if there was one race I would push as hard as I could, it was today.
"I puked five times after. I was super happy and super relieved, too. Now I feel better. I am just so happy. It was so awesome that we could make it a double."
Oskar Eriksson and Almida De Val delivered a bronze for Sweden in curling's mixed doubles, beating Great Britain in the third-place match, before Italy defeated Norway in the final.
Netherlands jumped a place to second on the table after Kjeld Nuis struck gold and Thomas Krol took silver in the men's 1,500 metres speed skating.
Nuis said he took inspiration from Ireen Wust on Monday winning the women's equivalent race, landing a gold medal for the fifth successive Winter Olympics.
"She's a really special human being," said Nuis, "she's the best skater in the world. She's been winning World Championships and Olympic medals since she was young.
"She's not winning every race any more. When I saw her win yesterday, it inspired me so much. When you see her win like that, you think, 'I want to do the same'."
Russian Olympic Committee slid from second to seventh on the table, with China nudging up to third spot thanks to Eileen Gu's stunning triumph in the freeski big air.
Gu landed a left double cork 1620, a high-tariff piece of skill, to earn China's third gold of their home Games.
Born in the United States to an American father and Chinese mother, Gu has taken flak on social media for deciding to compete for China.
But she delivered a fiery riposte to her critics, saying: "I know that I have a good heart and I know my reasons for making the decisions I do are based on a greater common interest and something I feel is for the greater good.
"If other people don't really believe that that's where I'm coming from, then that just reflects that they do not have the empathy to empathise with a good heart, perhaps because they don't share the same kind of morals that I do.
"In that sense, I'm not going to waste my time trying to placate people who are, one, uneducated and, two, probably never going to experience the kind of joy and gratitude and love that I have the great fortune to experience on a daily basis.
"If people don't like me, that's their loss. They're never going to win the Olympics."
Germany, who got a gold from Natalie Geisenberger in the women's luge singles, sit alongside China in a share of third, both having two silvers to complement their three gold medals.
Ester Ledecka's latest glorious gold, in parallel giant slalom, gave the Czech Republic a first medal of the Games, meaning they sit in a tie with New Zealand for 15th place.
Medal table (after day five):
1. Sweden (G4 S1 B1, Total: 6)
2. Netherlands (G3 S3 B1, Total: 7)
3. China (G3 S2 B0, Total: 5)
3. Germany (G3 S2 B0, Total: 5)
5. Norway (G3 S1 B4, Total: 8)
6. Italy (G2 S4 B1, Total: 7)
7. Russian Olympic Committee (G2 S3 B5, Total: 10)
8. Austria (G2 S3 B2, Total: 7)
9. Slovenia (G2 S1 B2, Total: 5)
10. France (G1 S4 B0, Total: 5)
Gu made history on Friday in Beijing, becoming the youngest athlete to win three individual medals at the Winter Games.
The 18-year-old from California, who elected to represent China rather than the United States at the Games, won gold in the halfpipe final, building on her triumph in the big air and her second-place finish in the slopestyle event.
She is also the youngest medallist in women's freeski halfpipe, and the first freestyle skier to win three medals at a single Winter Games.
Indeed, Gu is the first reigning world champion to win the event, and along with American David Wise, she is the only other freestyle skier to win the crystal globe, X Games, world championships and an Olympic gold medal in a single event.
"It has been two straight weeks of the most intense highs and lows I've ever experienced in my life," said Gu, who is also a model.
"It has changed my life forever. The second I landed the last 16 in big air I knew my life was never going to be the same again.
"Even then I would have never imagined that I'd walk away with another silver and another gold.
"I'm so honoured to be here and I'm even more honoured by this platform that I've been given to be able to spread this message and inspire young girls through my own passion for the sport and to hopefully spread the sport to people that might not have heard of it before."
Having already sealed her success heading into her third and final lap, Gu was able to entertain the crowd on her last run.
"I've never taken a victory lap before. I'm always saying, 'I want to push harder, I want to show that I can do more'," she added.
"And today, it kind of just felt like this coming-together moment because it's my last event at the Olympics.
"I put so much work into this, and to just feel like it was all worth it – all those little moments, the time I put in, in the gym after shooting a fashion editorial for eight to 10 hours, when I ran a half marathon every week over the summer, when I pushed myself to be the first person in practice and the last person to leave.
"Just all those little moments I feel like added up and it was just this great realisation that it was all worth it and that it was all real.
"I was very emotional at the top and I chose to do a victory lap because I felt like for the first time I really deserved it, and I really earned it."
The American great finished in fourth place in the men's halfpipe final on Friday after falling on his third run at Genting Snow Park.
It was the last competition at the Games for White, a pioneering figure in the sport for more than 15 years who helped to bring snowboarding into the mainstream.
A five-time Olympian, White won three gold medals in the halfpipe, but he could not match Ayumu Hirano on Friday as the Japanese finally won gold after silvers in 2014 and 2018.
Now 35, White holds the record for X-Games gold medals and golds won by a snowboarder at the Olympics. He never finished lower than fourth at the Games.
Speaking after the competition, White said problems with his leg caught up with him as he tried for a final push for a medal, but he could not be prouder than to see the standard of competition he helped to inspire.
"Over the last few months, it's been wild," White said. "Pushing to give it everything I have, but then realising I am human. I've spent an entire career not being human and doing what people thought was impossible. And then to have my ankle go and then my knee, and I had surgery before the season started.
"All these things wearing and tearing, so to put it down and to even get here, I was so thrilled. What a time of my life to be with those competitors and feel the joy of winning and riding.
"The thought I keep having is, 'Wow, this is the last time I'll be here doing this specific thing. This is the last time I'll be at a competition, stressed out about what points I'm going to get, or is today the day I might really hurt myself trying to push the envelope', you know? It's hard to wake up every day since you were a kid and go, 'Wow, I'm going to do something really scary today and hope I'm okay'.
"Honestly, I keep saying, if I got third, I would have wanted second. And if I had gotten second, I would have wanted more. This is just the competitor in me, but I am happy. I am happy to come back here and ride the pipe and have some fun and be a part of this sport. I think I've earned that.
"I knew my leg wasn't holding, but I knew I had to do something to push the score up. I hadn't landed one of those in practice and thought maybe – hey, I'm pretty lucky – maybe I'll hit it during the run and put it together. I barely made the first one, and so I knew going into that one it was all willpower to make it happen.
"You know, sliding on my back, thinking, 'This isn't how I wanted it to go'. You don't always get what you want, but I have to be thankful for everything I do have and what I have gotten in my career. I've got to be happy for these guys."
Asked about the current state of snowboarding, White added: "Oh my god. It makes me proud. It makes me pretty emotional, you know.
"Everybody was asking me what my legacy in this sport has been, and, I'm like, 'You're watching it'. These younger riders, they have been on my heels every step of the way. To see them finally surpass me is, I think, deep down what I always wanted, you know – to be beaten!"
The two-time champions were knocked out at the quarter-final stage for the second Games running with a penalty shoot-out loss in Wednesday's contest at the National Indoor Stadium in Beijing.
USA fielded a young side and recovered to lead 2-1 in the closing stages of regulation time, but Marek Hrivik struck with 43 seconds left to force 10 minutes of overtime and it was Slovakia who held their nerve as the contest went the distance.
Peter Cehlarik was the only player to convert his penalty in the shoot-out, with Andy Miele's saved attempt ensuring Slovakia advanced to the final four with a 3-2 victory.
"That's what happens when you don't play well," said Hentges, who gave USA the lead after Nick Abruzzese had cancelled out Juraj Slafkovsky's opener.
"We didn't play well in the second and third period and when you get to this level that's what happens.
"We didn't play how we played the last three games. It's as simple as that, that's why we lost."
USA, who were outshot 36-35 by Slovakia and went 0-for-4 on the power play, end their Beijing 2022 campaign with three wins and a defeat.
Ben Meyers agreed with Hentges that there can be no excuses.
"We played really well in our first three games and this is our first bad game," he said. "Now we are done.
"I have no complaints at all about anything. I'm just disappointed that we lost this time."
On the medals table, however, Norway and Sweden occupied places one and two, the Scandinavian snow and ice sport specialists going through familiar motions.
Members of the New Zealand team performed a haka as 20-year-old Zoi Sadowski-Synnott was awarded gold for a virtuoso snowboard slopestyle triumph, a moment of sporting history for her country.
Sadowski-Synnott will go again later in the Beijing Games when she competes in the big air event, a famous double in her sights. New Zealand squeezed into the top 10 on the medals table thanks to their first medals success of any colour in China, tying for ninth place with the hosts so far.
Australia share sixth with Japan and Slovenia, each nation having a gold and a bronze so far. Japan savoured their first ski jumping Olympic title since 1998 as Ryoyu Kobayashi soared to gold in the men's normal hill competition on Sunday.
The Australians clasped their hands on two medals in a day for the first time in Winter Games history, with Tess Coady taking bronze behind Sadowski-Synnott while Jakara Anthony swooped for a mesmerising gold in the freestyle skiing women's moguls.
Still, the top five on the medals table had a familiar look to it, with Germany and Netherlands tied in fourth with one gold and one silver each. Johannes Ludwig delivered Germany's first gold in Beijing when the 35-year-old triumphed in the luge men's singles. Patrick Roest took silver for Netherlands in the 5,000 metres speed skating, his country's only medal on Sunday.
Russian Olympic Committee have captured the most medals so far, but only one of their five has been gold, so they sit third on the table. Alexander Bolshunov led an ROC 1-2 in the cross-country skiathlon on Sunday, as Denis Spitsov took silver.
Sweden are dealing only in gold at the moment, with Nils van der Poel's 5,000m speed skating glory run on Sunday following a podium top spot on Saturday for Walter Wallberg in the men's moguls.
That means Norway, the most successful nation in Winter Olympics history, head the table in its nascent stage. After landing gold twice on Saturday, their encore was understated, with bronze in the speed skating for Hallgeir Engebraaten their only top-three placing.
Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt became the first Australians to win a curling match at the Olympics when they beat Switzerland, but that is only part of the story.
Having lost their first seven matches in the mixed team event at Beijing 2022, Gill and Hewitt were told they had to leave China on Sunday morning after the former returned a positive COVID-19 test.
However, with bags packed and ready to head to the airport, the duo were invited back after the Chinese Public Health System determined the CT values in Gill's PCR tests fell into an acceptable range, which left them with 15 minutes to get a taxi to the National Aquatics Centre for their match with Switzerland.
Remarkably, with Gill only playing with one glove having lost the other in the rush, Australia went on to beat the Swiss 9-6, before also getting the better of Canada 10-8 in their final clash.
"It has literally been the craziest, craziest 24 hours. My bags are still packed, I only just had time to pull out my uniforms," Gill said. "I was ruffling through my bags and ripping clothes out left, right and centre. I played with only one glove on - and it was the wrong one.
"It was really devastating [to be asked to leave China] given that I wasn't infectious, but after review I'm so incredibly grateful to the medical team to get me out on the ice and I'm able to compete and finish off our campaign on a really positive note.
"We put our hearts and souls into that [Switzerland] game, to be able to come back with the win was really awesome."
Prior to Sunday's remarkable events, Australia had lost to the United States, China, Czech Republic, Sweden, Great Britain, Norway and Italy, losing by a combined aggregate of 53-33.
Against Switzerland they were 6-3 down with three ends remaining, only to score three, two and one stones to nil to take the match 9-6.
An 8-8 tie saw their match against Canada go to an extra end, which they clinched two stones to nil.
They will still finish bottom of the standings despite their two victories, but Hewitt did not seem to mind as he appeared just as amazed by the circumstances, saying: "We had a couple of phone calls that maybe there could be a chance.
"I was like, 'Aw, don't do this to us, please'. Then we got the official call and we were like, 'Are you serious?' We had 15 minutes to get in the taxi.
"It's one of those things where you don't realise what you've got until it's gone. Once we heard that we could actually play again, it made it extra special for us.
"We were like, 'Let’s embrace the Olympics, embrace what we have and be grateful for it'. Because it's something that can be taken away from you in a moment's notice. We were just so stoked and we can't wait for the next game as well."
"It's incredible. You walk out there onto the ice and nearly everyone comes up to you and says, 'We’re so happy that you're out here'. It just shows the camaraderie between curlers here."
France, Germany and Netherlands have historically, and recently, enjoyed plenty of podium success at the Games, but it has been in seriously short supply in the case of the Belgians.
In fact, until this weekend they had not held a Winter Olympics gold medal since Micheline Lannoy and Pierre Baugniet won the figure skating mixed pairs at the 1948 Games in St Moritz.
Swings took glory in speed skating's men's mass start event, an improvement on his silver medal from Pyeongchang four years ago as the 31-year-old backed up his top-ranked World Cup form of the past three seasons.
South Koreans Chung Jae Won and Lee Seung Hoon took silver and bronze, while last place went to Dutch great Sven Kramer, a nine-time Olympic medallist, who won four golds in his storied career and was making his final appearance at the Games.
Swings said after winning the 100th gold medal of Beijing 2022: "That silver medal in Pyeongchang was already incredible because I think it was about 20 years ago since we had won a medal.
"Now a gold medal following up on that silver is historical. It's unbelievable. I'm looking forward to getting home with my family and friends. I haven't seen them in a long time because of COVID-19. It's going to be amazing to see them and show them the gold medal."
Here, Stats Perform picks out some other standout numbers from Saturday's action in Beijing.
3 - Irene Schouten became just the second woman to win three gold medals in speed skating in a single Winter Olympics, as she won the women's mass start, adding that to her 3,000m and 5,000m victories. It meant she matched the three-gold feat of fellow Dutchwoman Yvonne van Gennip from the 1988 Calgary Games. Germany's Claudia Pechstein finished ninth in Saturday's race at the age of 49, signing off a 30-year Olympic career that saw her win five gold medals and nine medals in all.
4-3-2-1 - Niklas Edin is the poster boy for patience, finally getting his hands on gold with the Sweden men's curling team. The skip featured as the Swedes finished fourth in 2010, third in 2014, second in 2018, and the 5-4 win over Great Britain means Edin has finally led the team to first place. It makes him the first Olympian to go on a run of 4-3-2-1 finishes in the same event, and means Sweden are men's curling team champions for the first time.
7 - Russian Olympic Committee's Alexander Bolshunov struck gold in the cross-country mass start, which was shortened from 50km to 30km due to extreme weather conditions. It gave him a fifth medal and third gold of Beijing 2022, after previous triumphs in the skiathlon and men's relay. That also made him the seventh cross-country skier to win five medals in any single edition of the Olympics, and the first man. Bolshunov now has nine medals in his Olympic career, finishing on the podium every time he has competed.
20 - New Zealand's Nico Porteous is just 20 years and 88 days old, and this is his second Winter Olympics. He landed a bronze four years ago and became the youngest gold medallist in men's freeski halfpipe with a spectacular performance on Saturday, nailing his routine to deliver a third medal for his country at these Games. It is the first time New Zealand have won three medals in a Winter Olympics, with snowboarder Zoi Sadowski-Synnott having landed the first two.
Therese Johaug capped off a brilliant individual campaign, and her Olympic career, in Beijing as she claimed a third gold of the Games in cross-country skiing, prevailing in the women's 30km mass start on Sunday.
Already guaranteed top spot in the medal table, that win took Norway's total of golds to 16, four in front of Germany. It is the second successive games in which Norway has finished top of the pile.
A Games that has seen Germany dominate the sliding events was fittingly capped with a German victory in the four-man bobsleigh.
Francesco Friedrich piloted Germany to a 12th and final gold while Johannes Lochner finished second behind his team-mate.
Canada took bronze, with 14 of the country's 26 medals at these Games being of that variety.
A total of four golds is Canada's lowest since the 1994 Games in Lillehammer (three) and, ending the final day in 11th, the 2022 Olympics marked the first in which the North American nation has finished outside the top 10 in the medal table since its home games in Calgary in 1988, when it did not win a single gold.
Great Britain did not win a medal of any colour at that Games, but a late rush in curling ensured the Brits avoided that fate in Beijing.
A 10-3 victory over Japan in the final on Sunday meant the women won gold a day after the men's team had to settle for silver. Team GB finished 19th in the table.
Medal table:
1. Norway (G16 S8 B13, Total: 37)
2. Germany (G12 S10 B5, Total: 27)
3. China (G9 S4 B2, Total: 15)
4. United States (G8 S10 B7, Total: 25)
5. Sweden (G8 S5 B5, Total: 18)
6. Netherlands (G8 S5 B4, Total: 17)
7. Austria (G7 S7 B4, Total: 18)
8. Switzerland (G7 S2 B5, Total: 14)
9. Russian Olympic Committee (G6 S12 B14, Total: 32)
10. France (G5 S7 B2, Total: 14)
The 15-year-old Russian was contentiously cleared to go for the individual title on Monday despite testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug.
Valieva was given the green light to compete at the Capital Indoor Stadium due to "exceptional circumstances", largely due to the teenager's age ensuring she is considered to be a "protected person" under World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) rules.
After helping the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) secure team figure skating gold last week, Valieva headed into the individual event as the favourite to take the title.
The Kazan-born sensation, who tested positive for trimetazidine in December, was cheered when she skated out to begin her short program routine.
Valieva made a mistake when she failed to land a triple axel but put that behind her like a champion to ensure she leads heading into the free skate on Thursday.
She avoided hitting the deck when making that error and showed her class to earn a score of 82.16 from the judges.
Valieva looked very emotional on the ice after a difficult time for the youngster, who could have found herself thrown out of the Games.
Fellow Russian Anna Shcherbakova is in second spot following her score of 80.20, with Kaori Sakamoto (79.84) of Japan in third.
Denis Oswald, chair of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) disciplinary commission, revealed earlier in the day that Valieva claimed she may have failed a drugs test after accidentally consuming medication belonging to her grandfather.
"Her argument was contamination which happened with a product her grandfather was taking," Oswald told reporters.
Trimetazidine is a medication that prevents angina attacks but is banned by WADA because it aids blood flow to the heart.
Valieva, 15, helped the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) claim team figure skating gold last week, and she is a big favourite to win first prize in the individual event, which begins on Tuesday.
However, the teenager had been unsure if she would be able to compete in Tuesday's event after the IOC and the International Testing Agency (ITA) appealed a decision from RUSADA – Russia's Anti-Doping Agency – to remove a provisional suspension on the athlete.
Valieva tested positive in December for trimetazidine, a medication that prevents angina attacks but is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) because it aids blood flow to the heart.
On Sunday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that Valieva was able to compete, stating that it was appropriate that the provisional suspension had been lifted.
While accepting this decision, the IOC has decided against holding a medal ceremony for the team figure skating, while it has also stated there will be no such celebration should Valieva finish on the podium in the individual event, as is expected.
A statement from the IOC said: "The CAS has clearly expressed that the decision taken by the Ad-hoc Division today is not a decision on whether Ms Valieva violated the anti-doping rules.
"It was limited to the sole question of whether Ms Valieva could be provisionally suspended from the Olympic competition following a positive A-sample taken on 25 December 2021.
"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."
The IOC EB (executive board) has subsequently concluded that: "In the interest of fairness to all athletes and the NOCs concerned, it would not be appropriate to hold the medal ceremony for the figure skating team event during the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 as it would include an athlete who on the one hand has a positive A-sample, but whose violation of the anti-doping rules has not yet been established on the other hand."
The statement also confirmed that the IOC had requested the International Skating Union (ISU) allow a 25th competitor to participate in the free skating event, which takes place on Thursday, if Valieva ranks inside the top 24 in the short program on Tuesday.
However, the IOC has promised to hold "dignified medal ceremonies" once Valieva's case has been fully concluded.
Former New Jersey Devils, Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens coach Julien sustained the injury blow while with the team in Switzerland, where Canada are completing their preparation for the Games in Beijing.
Julien, 61, had been preparing to lead a team who will hope to compete for Olympic gold, an honour Canada have achieved nine times in their history, most recently at the 2014 Games in Sochi. They are hampered this time by players from the NHL sitting out the Olympics, a decision that was announced in December.
Hockey Canada confirmed Julien's injury in a statement that said: "During a team-building activity at training camp in Switzerland, Julien slipped on ice and sustained fractured ribs. As per the advice of the team's medical staff and other medical experts, it was determined that he will be unable to fly to Beijing to participate in the 2022 Olympic Winter Games due to the injury."
Details of what the team-building activity involved have not been revealed.
Team general manager Shane Doan said: "Claude was beyond excited and honoured to be a member of Team Canada at the Olympics, and we are all disappointed that he will no longer be able to lead our team in Beijing.
"Claude is in great spirits and we will continue to do everything we can to support him. We ask that Claude's privacy please be respected at this time."
According to the Toronto Sun newspaper, Doan said Julien was "devastated" when told his injuries meant he could not join the team on their mission to China.
Former Chicago Blackhawks head coach Jeremy Colliton takes over from Julien, with Doan saying: "We know he will do an exceptional job leading our team behind the bench in Beijing."
Colliton said: "While it is difficult to fill in for a coach that has a pedigree like Claude Julien, I am honoured to be considered as the person to lead Canada's men's Olympic team as head coach.
"We have a very close-knit, experienced coaching staff that has gained a lot of knowledge from Claude in our short time together, and I know our staff will continue to support each other as we look to achieve our goal of winning an Olympic gold medal."
Canada begin their Olympic campaign against Germany on February 10, before playing further preliminary group games against the United States on February 12 and China a day later.
The 26-year-old took home one gold medal from both the 2014 Sochi Games and 2018 in Pyeongchang, and came to Beijing with high hopes of adding to that haul.
Ester Ledecka is among the rivals who will also be targeting the super-G podium, while other multiple champions in action elsewhere on Friday include Shaun White and Dario Cologna.
Here, Stats Perform previews each of the day's medal events.
Alpine skiing
Shiffrin took super-G gold at the 2019 World Championships, so she cannot be counted out here, providing she cuts out the errors and finishes the course.
Italians Federica Brignone, Elena Curtoni and Sofia Goggia are 1-2-3 in the World Cup standings, so should be factors, while Czech star Ledecka is chasing a second extraordinary double. She took snowboard parallel giant slalom gold earlier in the Games, and after winning both that and the super-G in 2018, she cannot be ruled out.
Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami won the world title last year and sits fifth in the World Cup standings, but a reigning world champion has never won gold in the women's Olympic super-G.
Biathlon
Can Norway's Marte Olsbu Roeiseland upgrade from silver four years ago in the women's 7.5km sprint? Her World Cup form has been good, with two wins in the sprints, so gold is a realistic aim. She already has one gold from Beijing, in the team relay, and a bronze from the 15km individual.
Norway's Tiril Eckhoff has not shown her best form in the World Cup this year, but Roeiseland's compatriot is the reigning world champion, a two-time Olympic relay gold medallist, and could come into the equation.
Cross-country skiing
Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo won gold in the sprint and should again be a factor in Friday's men's 15km classic, but the Norwegian says Finland's Iivo Niskanen is the hottest prospect for top of the podium.
"He's definitely the favourite I would say, together with [Alexander] Bolshunov," said Klaebo. "All of us need to have the best day we can have, and it will be tough but we're just going to give it all and hopefully manage to have a good day and to have good skis and everything and then for sure it's possible."
Swiss veteran Cologna has won this event in the last three Olympics, but a four-peat seems an unlikely prospect.
Short track speed skating
Netherlands' Suzanne Schulting competes in the women's 1,000m, looking to defend the title, which has not been achieved since Lee-kyung Chun did so in 1998. South Korea and China have won 16 of the 21 medals in this event since its Olympic debut in 1994.
Skeleton
Christopher Grotheer was star of the show as the men's skeleton began on Thursday, leading by 0.70 seconds after two runs. That is a significant gap, with the German's closest rival being his compatriot Alex Jungk.
World champion Grotheer said: "The first run was brilliant, and the second run was also really good. I have a really good first day and I hope [on Friday] I can show this performance too."
Snowboard
American White heads into the halfpipe knowing this will be his career swan song, having decided to retire. Three times a gold medallist, the 35-year-old is bidding to become the first man to win individual gold medals at four Winter Olympics.
White was fourth in qualifying, with Japan's Ayumu Hirano leading the way.
Speed skating
Sweden's Nils van der Poel has made his mark on and off the rink in Beijing, winning gold in the men's 5,000m before making a raft of accusations, claiming the dominant Netherlands team have unduly influenced racing conditions. He goes again on Friday in the men's 10,000m and is the likely champion.
If the qualifying performance of the 'Snow Princess' on Thursday is anything to go by, Gu will be a worthy hot favourite for the freeski halfpipe.
Elsewhere, Team GB will find out what colour their first medal of these Games will be in the men's curling final, while Netherlands aim for more speed skating gold and biathlon signs off with its final two events.
The two-woman bobsled heats are also due to take place, along with the pairs short programme in figure skating, and the men's semi-finals of the ice hockey as Finland face Slovakia and the Russian Olympic Committee go up against Sweden.
Here, Stats Perform takes a look at Friday's medal events:
Biathlon
The men's 15km mass start takes place on Friday, with France's Quentin Fillon Maillet gunning for his sixth medal.
He became the first biathlete to win five medals at a single Winter Games after securing two golds and three silvers in Beijing, although he has not won a men's World Cup mass start race in the past two seasons.
There will be plenty of competition as six of the last seven World Championship gold medallists in the mass start are competing here, including the Boe brothers of Norway.
In the women's 12.5km mass start, which has been rescheduled from Saturday due to anticipated weather conditions, Norway's Marte Olsbu Roeiseland is looking to match Fillon Maillet's current haul by winning a fifth medal in Beijing.
If she does win a medal, Roeiseland will also become the first biathlete to finish on the podium in all four individual events at a single Winter Games.
The last three world champions in this event, including Roeiseland, will be competing, with Italy's Dorothea Wierer and Austria's Lisa Theresa Hauser looking to overcome the dominant Norwegian.
Curling
Great Britain will win a medal at Beijing 2022, which did not look like it would be the case for the majority of these Games.
Bruce Mouat and his team celebrated a hard-fought 8-4 win against the United States in the semi-final on Thursday, and will face Niklas Edin and his Sweden team in Friday's gold medal match after they beat Canada 6-3.
"I'm really struggling to sum it up, but I guess you saw from our reaction there that it was just pure elation," Mouat said after beating the champions from PyeongChang 2018.
"It's going to be amazing. Niklas and his team have been our rivals for so many years now. We’ve played them in numerous Europeans and World Championships, so it feels really nice to be able to play them in a larger final."
Great Britain beat Sweden 7-6 in the round-robin stage earlier at these Games.
Freestyle skiing
As usual when she competes at these Games, all eyes will be on Gu. She comfortably qualified in first place on Thursday with scores in her two runs of 93.75 and 95.50, with no-one else in the field achieving a score higher than 89.50 from either jump.
"I was journaling last night, I wrote some affirmations, I was like, 'I am fresh. I am not tired. I am excited'," the 18-year-old said after sealing her place in the final.
"The joke is I'm actually exhausted, I'm not fresh, but I was writing in my journal to try to convince myself that I was - and it's working, I slept well last night."
Canada's Rachael Karker, Estonia's Kelly Sildaru, who won bronze in the slopestyle, and Great Britain's Zoe Atkin completed the top four in qualifying and will likely be Gu's biggest competition.
Speed skating
In the men's 1,000m, the Netherlands will be aiming to become the first country to win the event at three consecutive Olympic Winter Games, following Stefan Groothuis (Sochi 2014) and Kjeld Nuis (PyeongChang 2018).
Kai Verbij may be their best hope as the reigning world champion, though Thomas Krol leads the World Cup 1,000m rankings.
China's Gao Tingyu, who won the 500m, is looking to become only the second skater to win both 500m and 1,000m at the same Winter Games after Eric Heiden of the United States did so in 1980.