Beijing Olympics Highlights -- Feb. 15

-- The Russian figure skater who’s been allowed to compete despite a positive drug test in December, Kamila Valieva, finished first in the women’s short program. Valieva is heavily-favored to win the gold. Alysa Liu was the highest-finishing American, in eighth place. The free skate will air Thursday night. Meanwhile, it was reported that in addition to the banned heart drug she tested positive for, Valieva also tested positive for two other drugs used to treat heart conditions, but which aren’t banned. U.S. Anti-Doping Agency head Travis Tygart  told CNN it “appears to be the case of a pretty deliberate attempt to use substances in order to enhance performance.”

-- The top-seeded U.S. men’s hockey team was eliminated by Slovakia in their quarterfinal, with the Americans blowing a late lead and losing a shootout. Slovakia tied the game at 2-2 with 43.7 seconds left in regulation, and there were 10 scoreless overtime minutes. Slovakia’s Peter Cehlarik scored the only goal of the shootout, in which each team got five chances.

-- American freestyle skiers won both the gold and silver medals in the men’s ski slopestyle, with Alex Hall finishing first for the gold and Nick Goepper in second for silver. (See here)

-- French skier Clement Noel won the men’s slalom, giving France its first Alpine gold in Beijing. Austria’s Johannes Strolz won silver and Sebastian Foss-Solevaag of Norway took bronze.

Medal Count: (As of 4:00 a.m. ET) - Norway is in first place with 27 medals, followed by the Russian Olympic Committee with 21, and  the U.S. and Germany have 19 each. In the gold medal count, Norway is first with 12, Germany is second with 9, and the U.S. is third with eight. The U.S. has 19 medals overall, eight gold, seven silver and four bronze.