It was perhaps the most consequential event of the Beijing Olympics, and almost no one got to see it.
Just after 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, the door to a conference room in the Beijing Continental Grand Hotel closed, and a hearing began. The task of the arbitrators who emerged from the room nearly six hours later is to determine if the Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, who learned on Tuesday that she had failed a pre-Olympics doping test, will be able to continue to participate at the Games.
The hearing was conducted by a panel of three arbitrators assigned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the body that adjudicates global sports disputes. They were asked to consider appeals filed by three organizations — the International Olympic Committee, the World…
