American figure skaters have waited nearly two years for their moment in the sun as Olympic champions at the 2022 Beijing Games. Now they ask for the right pomp and ceremony that goes with it.
Two of the nine Americans who rightly want to deprive Russia of the gold medals are asking the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to organize a proper ceremony to honor their fellow competitors at the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris.
“When this all initially happened, the first thing that came to everyone’s mind was that we would like to have a real Olympic medal ceremony, and so for us that would be a medal ceremony at the Paris Games this summer,” ice dancer Madison Chock said on a teleconference.
The United States will receive the gold after the Court of Arbitration for Sport retroactively disqualified Russian skater Kamila Valieva for doping ahead of the Beijing Games.
A test found traces of the heart drug trimetazidine in her system. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has placed the drug on the list of banned substances in the category ‘hormone and metabolic modulators’.
The American speed skating team hopes to be honored at the Summer Olympics in Paris
Madison Chock (L) called the opportunity to be properly honored a “dream scenario” for Team USA
The test would have been positive in December 2021, but Valieva, then 15 years old, still took part in the games after the Russian anti-doping agency cleared her.
Chock and her dance partner Evan Bates both hope the IOC can appropriately celebrate and honor the Americans for their achievement.
“To be able to stand on top of the podium at an Olympic event and be there with our families, and just celebrate and be surrounded by the Olympic spirit and the Olympic movement would be our dream scenario,” she added.
On the call, Sarah Hirshland, CEO of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, said the location and logistics for the medal ceremony have not yet been determined.
But it could still throw a spanner in the works if Russia drops back to the bronze medal spot.
In the ruling, the International Skating Union (ISU) said they would remove all of Valieva’s points from the team event.
As a result, Russia – which participated in the Olympic Games under a neutral flag as the Russian Olympic Committee – finished with a total of 54 points.
That puts them in a bronze medal spot, just one point ahead of Canada, who finished in fourth place.
Canadian officials are outraged by the decision and are considering appealing the ruling. Russia will also appeal the CAS ruling. This decision by the ISU must still be ratified by the IOC.
Canada’s call could delay an official ceremony for the Americans to receive their medals, as the process could take until after the Paris Games.
The Americans were retroactively awarded gold after Russian skater Kamila Valieva was given a four-year ban by CAS and disqualified from Beijing 2022 due to doping
But Hirshland believes that shouldn’t be a problem. “There is no scenario right now in which Team USA is not the gold medalist. There is no reason for any delay.”
Hirshland said she was not “100 percent sure” where the gold medals are currently located, saying, “My best guess is that those medals are probably in a very secure location in Lausanne, Switzerland (IOC headquarters) waiting to be are awarded.’
Notably, the IOC did not hold a medal ceremony for the Russians in 2022 because Valieva was under investigation at the time.
As a result of the CAS ruling, all Valieva competition results have been disqualified retroactively to December 25, 2021.
She has also been banned from all competitions for four years. That ban expires just months before the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy. It is unclear whether this means Valieva could miss Russia’s Olympic trials.
That four-year ban for Valieva expires just months before the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan, Italy
This decision goes beyond just awarding gold to the United States in this event; it also affects the overall medal tally of the Beijing Games.
It is striking that the United States is now displacing host country China for third place in the overall rankings. The US and China both have nine gold medals, but the Americans have more silver medals (10) than China (4).
Despite losing the gold, the ROC remains ninth in the medal class. They are tied with France with five medals apiece, but like the US, the ROC has more silver medals (12) than the French (7).
In addition to Chock and Bates, the other members of the U.S. speed skating team who will receive gold medals include Nathan Chen, Vincent Zhou, Karen Chen, Alexa Knierim, Brandon Frazier, Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue.