Valieva’s participation in the competition was only given the green light yesterday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), who ruled irreparable damage could be done to the 15-year-old if a provisional suspension was reinstated.

The provisional suspension was initially lifted by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency, amid claims of contamination with her grandfather's medication had led to her positive test for the banned substance trimetazidine.

The world record holder featured in the final group of the evening and was cheered by the COVID-19 reduced crowd at the venue when introduced.

The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) skater stumbled on her triple axel at the start of her short programme, which was performed to Memoriam by Kirill Richter.

Valieva recovered from the early setback, achieving a clean triple flip and triple lutz in combination with a triple toe-loop.

The judges awarded her 44.51 for technical elements and 37.65 for presentation.

The overall score of 82.16 saw Valieva move to the top of the standings, despite the total being her lowest short programme score of the season.

The 15-year-old quickly moved through the mixed zone after her performance and did not attend a media conference after the first part of the competition - although the latter is only mandatory after the conclusion of the free skate event.

World champion Anna Shcherbakova is within touching distance of Valieva after the short programme.

She achieved a score of 80.20 points to complete an ROC one-two in the programme, placing her in contention to challenge for a gold medal.

Japan’s Sakamoto Kaori is in third place, breaking up the ROC dominance in the competition.

The two-time Olympian scored 79.84, ending 5.24 clear of the ROC’s third skater Alexandra Trusova.

The three ROC skaters are all coached by Eteri Tutberidze, who will come under the spotlight with the Russian Anti-Doping Agency and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) poised to investigate Valieva’s entourage following her positive test.

Second placed Shcherbakova declined to comment on the ongoing case after the short programme, but American competitor Karen Chen claimed afterwards that the distraction of the Valieva situation had been "overwhelming at times".

Chen is among the US team waiting to discover when the team medal ceremony will be held, following the decision of the IOC to delay ceremonies involving Valieva until her case concludes.

Valieva had led the ROC to a gold medal in the team event last week, with the US and Japan completing a provisional podium.

The 15-year-old is now a step closer to securing another first place finish in Beijing, with today’s short programme beginning a spectacle likely to last several months, to discover where potentially two sets of medals will end up.

The first act may have featured skaters in the Chinese capital, but the outcome appears destined to be decided by lawyers in Lausanne.