The U.S. Olympic figure skating team from 2022 has had a long wait for their gold medals, but they finally got them.
And they got to receive them at the podium at this year’s games in Paris, along with the 2024 winners.
What happened? Medal-awarding got confused and put on hold after the Russian team originally won the gold medals, largely due to the 15-year-old phenomenon Kamila Valieva. Trouble is, she was drug-tested and found positive for trimetazidine, a drug used to treat the heart condition angina (heart pain) but that is banned for its possible performance-enhancing effects.
And that sealed the deal, putting a cap on any team being awarded medals until Valieva’s situation was investigated.
The U.S. figure skating team was disappointed and said so at the time. Posting on Instagram in February, 2023, the team said players were “deeply frustrated” that there was no final decision in a timely way. The statement continued, saying the competitors deserved to be recognized for their achievements and that U.S. Figure Skating was calling on the IOC for a “fair” ruling. They urged the Olympics to “rightfully award medals” to athletes who were free of drugs.
That finally came this year as both the U.S. and Japanese teams took the podium in Paris’ Champions Park to get their gold and silver medals won in the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.
It took until January of 2024 for Russian Valieva to be found guilty of doping. She and the Russian team were stripped of their medals in figure skating. In addition, the International Skating Union lowered the Russian team’s ranking from gold to bronze on account of Valieva’s situation.
That worked in favor of the other athletes. The U.S. team moved up to gold while the Japanese team claimed the silver.
The U.S.’ Madison Chock said the situation was “almost surreal.” Seeing the Eiffel Tower while being handed a gold medal blew her away, she said.
