Kamila Valieva can compete again at the Winter Olympics after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) decided that no provisional suspension should be imposed on the 15-year-old after she failed a drugs test.
Cas said preventing the Russian figure skater from competing would have caused her “irreparable harm”.
“The athlete should benefit from the following exceptional circumstances: She is under 16 and a protected person under the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) code,” added Cas’ Matthieu Reeb.
Cas, which is sport’s highest court, said “serious issues of untimely notification of the results” of the failed test – which came during the Games and nearly six weeks after she gave the sample – had also played a part in its decision.
“Such late notification was not her fault, in the middle of the Olympic Winter Games,” the ruling said.
Valieva, who returned a positive test on 25 December last year, had been provisionally suspended on 8 February but challenged the decision and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada) lifted the ban the next day.
By that time she had already competed and helped the Russian Olympic Committee to victory in the team event, although the medals for that will not be handed out until the full anti-doping case is complete.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), Wada and International Skating Union launched an appeal against Rusada’s decision to lift the provisional suspension, which is what Cas has now turned down.
She is now free to compete on Tuesday in the women’s individual figure skating competition, where she is favourite for gold.
While her immediate Olympic future has been resolved, this case that has overshadowed the Games and provoked outrage at how a child became embroiled in a case of suspected doping is far from over.
Wada has already said it will be investigating the teenager’s entourage, including coaches, doctors and other adults surrounding her, while the actual matter of the failed test is yet to be resolved.
That means she could win a medal in the individual competition and be stripped of it at a later date.
The IOC had earlier said it would follow the Cas decision “whether we like it nor not”.
Meanwhile the US Olympic Committee said it was “disappointed by the message that this decision sends”.