Iranian positive steroids test, medal delay continues: Olympics update

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The women's figure skating medal ceremony has still not taken place due to an unspecified "legal consultation." /VCG

• Iran's Saveh Shemshaki has become the first athlete of the games to return a positive doping test after testing positive for an anabolic steroid. As a result, the 36-year-old alpine skier has been provisionally suspended until further notice.

•Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva is not suspended from the Olympic Games, according to the spokeswoman for the nation's figure skating federation, Olga Ermolina. Recent reports in a Russia newspaper suggested that Valieva, 15, tested positive for a banned substance before the Beijing Games. The teenager was part of the Russian team that won gold in the women's figure skating on Monday but are yet to receive their medals amid an ongoing unspecified "legal consultation."

• Austria's Johannes Strolz won gold in the men's alpine combined, following in the footsteps of his father Hubert, who also won the same discipline at the Calgary Games back in 1988.

• Meanwhile, Canada's James Crawford, who finished behind Strolz to claim a bronze medal in the same event, believes that shaving off his mustache may have helped him overcome a succession of narrow podium misses, after finishing fourth in the downhill race on Monday and sixth in the super-G on Tuesday.

• Online sales of Winter Olympics souvenirs rose by 21.2 times during the Lunar New Year holidays, while sales of snow sports equipment and clothing were also up by 62.9 percent and 61.2 percent, respectively, according to China's commerce ministry spokesman Gao Feng.

• U.S. snowboarder Chloe Kim put in a commanding performance to win halfpipe gold and successfully defend her 2018 Olympic title. Kim, 21, earned a top score of 94, with Spain's Queralt Castellet (90.25) and Sena Tomita of Japan (88.25), finishing in the silver and bronze medal positions.

• Reigning Olympic downhill champion Sofia Goggia will skip the super-G scheduled for Friday but will take part in the downhill race, a spokesman for the Italian team confirmed. Goggia injured her leg in a crash at a World Cup race last month and only took part in her first training session in China on Tuesday.

• Nine new COVID-19 cases have been detected among games-related personnel – six among new airport arrivals, with the other three being either an athlete or a team official in the "closed loop" bubble.

•A Winter Olympics fan has had the event's panda bear mascot, Bing Dwen Dwen shaved into the back of his head. Speaking after the cut, stylist Wang Jianfeng, explained that the emergence of the panda on Chinese video app Douyin has led to Bing Dwen Dwen becoming popular across the country.