Topline
Members of the U.S. figure skating team who competed at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games were awarded their gold medals two years after they competed in China following a Russian doping scandal in which Russian skater Kamila Valieva, then 15, was stripped of her wins by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Members of the U.S. Olympic figure skating team pose for a photo after receiving gold medals on Aug. … [+]
Key Facts
Team USA left Beijing in second position but without any actual medal after it was revealed Valiyeva of the gold-winning Russian team had tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine—delaying the figure skating medal ceremony.
Valiyeva’s case was tried in front of the World Anti-Doping Agency early last year and the Court of Arbitration for Sport then disqualified her from Olympic contention and banned her from official figure skating competitions for four years.
The court’s ruling meant Valiyeva’s results could no longer be counted toward the Russian Olympic Committee’s total team score, dropping the ROC into third place in the event.
Appeals in the case were dismissed by the court last Thursday, paving the way for Team USA to be awarded the gold and Japan the silver in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Wednesday.
Because there are not athletes or teams representing Russia in the Paris summer games (the ROC was suspended from this year’s Olympics for violating the “territorial integrity” of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine), Russia was not included in Wednesday’s medal ceremony, even though Valiyeva’s disqualification meant it still finished in bronze medal position.
The now gold-medal American figure skaters are Evan Bates, Karen Chen, Nathan Chen, Madison Chock, Zachary Donohue, Brandon Frazier, Madison Hubbell, Alexa Knierim and Vincent Zhou.
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Members of the Japan Olympic figure skating team pose for a photo after receiving silver medals in … [+]
Why Did Russia Still Medal In Figure Skating At The 2022 Beijing Olympics?
The ROC team as a whole was not disqualified from the Beijing Olympics. Because only one of Russia’s athletes tested positive for a banned substance, only her score was removed from the team competition total. Even without Valiyeva’s score, the Russian team still scored high enough to medal in the team event (Team USA ultimately had a score of 65 to Japan’s 63 and ROC’s 54). Canada, in fourth place with 53 points, appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and asked for the Russian team to be disqualified, which would have moved Canada into the bronze medal position, but the country’s appeal was denied.
Big Number
5. That’s how many medals the Russian Olympic Committee, barred from competing under the Russian flag because of an earlier doping scandal in the country, won in figure skating in Beijing—not counting the team win that was later revoked. The team was not stripped of medals that did not involve Valiyeva, and members of it won silver in ice dancing, silver and bronze in pair skating, and gold and silver in women’s single skating.
Key Background
Valiyeva tested positive for trimetazidine, a heart medication, in December of 2021, but the results were not shared with authorities until after her free skate in Beijing six weeks later. Lawyers for Valiyeva argued that her positive test was the result of accidental contamination in her home, NBC Sports reported at the time, and her grandfather claimed he took trimetazidine. The World Anti-Doping Agency, however, did not believe that she bore “no fault or negligence” for her positive drug test. The Valiyeva scandal was just the latest in Russia’s long and checkered history when it comes to doping and the Olympics. More than 150 athletes from the country have been caught using banned substances and dozens of medals have been stripped from teams associated with it. A state-sponsored doping scandal broke open at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and a New York Times investigation that same year detailed a scheme in which Russian intelligence switched urine samples for athletes.
Further Reading
Mary Roeloffs is a Forbes reporter who covers breaking news with a frequent focus on the entertainment industry, streaming, sports news, publishing, pop culture and climate change. She joined Forbes in 2023 and lives in Dallas. She’s covered Netflix’s hottest documentaries, a surge of assaults reported on social media, the most popular books of the year and how climate change stands to impact the way we eat. Roeloffs was included on Editor & Publisher Magazine’s “ 25 Under 30” list in 2023 and worked covering local news in the greater Boston area from 2017 to 2023. She graduated with a double major in political science and journalism from Northeastern University. Follow Roeloffs for continued coverage of streaming wars, pop culture news and trending topics.
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