NEW YORK – Awarding of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics figure-skating team gold to the United States after Russia were stripped of top spot for doping could be delayed by appeals, said US Olympic officials on March 14, putting plans for a Paris celebration in jeopardy.
After two years of legal wrangling, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled in January that Russian teenager Kamila Valieva will receive a four-year doping ban that elevated the US to gold and Japan to silver.
Fourth-placed finishers Canada believed they should move up from fourth to bronze but, when the International Skating Union (ISU) removed Valieva’s result, Russia remained third.
ISU regulations only provide for collective disqualification in the event of a positive doping control of one of the athletes during the competition, not one from eight weeks before, as was the case with Valieva, who tested positive for trimetazidine in 2021.
Excluding her scores left Russia third and Canada fourth.
Russia quickly filed an appeal against the CAS decision to Switzerland’s supreme court, while Skate Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee have appealed to CAS.
Already frustrated by the lengthy delays, American figure skaters had expressed hope of getting their medals during a ceremony at this summer’s Paris Olympics but now face potentially more disappointment.
“The variety of appeals may in fact delay the award of those medals, although it is our hope and sincere interest in being able to award those medals in Paris,” said United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) chief Sarah Hirshland following a board of directors meeting.
“That is what the team has requested and we believe that can happen regardless of the hearings. Obviously, we are not in control of that timeline, but it is certainly our hope that that is what we are able to do.”
The Paris Games may be just months away, but it was the Winter Olympics in the US that dominated discussion following the meeting. Both Hirshland and USOPC chair Gene Sykes said they will be in Salt Lake City for the International Olympic Committee’s Future Host Commission visit from April 9 to 13.
The IOC team will tour venues and evaluate preparations before submitting a report to the executive board, which will determine if a bid to host the 2034 Winter Games should be put to a vote by the full membership.
The visit is viewed as little more than a rubber stamp with Salt Lake City 2034 and France 2030 already picked as preferred hosts.
“Both Sarah and I will be present for the Future Host Commission. We know many of the members in the host commission, Sarah was just in Lausanne two weeks ago and I maintain a very good dialogue with many IOC members who are part of that,” said Sykes.
“The expectation on the part of the IOC is that this will confirm what they have already learnt about the Salt Lake City team.” REUTERS, AFP
