US Olympic figure skaters receive gold medals in Paris after 912-day delay

August 7, 2024

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US Olympic figure skaters receive gold medals in Paris after 912-day delay

PARIS — As the Eiffel Tower towered over a crowd of thousands and “The Star-Spangled Banner” rang out on a perfect August day in the French capital, nine American Olympians finally got their reward for something they did 912 days ago and 5,000 miles away.

The American figure skaters at the 2022 Olympics had to wait a whopping 2.5 years for their team gold medal at the Beijing Games. But the venue was worth the wait.

“I didn’t know what to expect when I walked out there,” Karen Chen said of the view. “It was just… I’m speechless, I don’t know. It’s very special.”

OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALISTS 🇺🇸🥇 photo.twitter.com/wftC6deAkY

— Team USA (@TeamUSA) August 7, 2024

Chen and her eight teammates from that 2022 team — Nathan Chen, Vincent Zhou, Alexa Knierim, Brandon Frazier, Madison Hubbell, Zachary Donohue, Madison Chock and Evan Bates — were all in Paris on Wednesday for the ceremony, which was delayed more than two years as the circumstances surrounding their ascent to gold were reviewed by the court.

In the team event at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Russia sailed to what looked like a nine-point victory and a gold medal. The United States finished second, with Japan in the bronze medal position.

However, the medal ceremony, scheduled for the following day, was postponed as IOC spokesman Mark Adams said it was a “legal consultation” with the International Skating Union.

Reports quickly followed that Russian speed skater Kamila Valieva, then 15, had tested positive six weeks earlier for trimetazidine (TMZ), a drug that can improve blood flow to the heart and is on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of banned substances. The case dragged on for two years, with no medals awarded in the meantime, before the Court of Arbitration for Sport sided with WADA and imposed a four-year ban on Valieva in January.

That decision cleared the way for the IOC to disqualify her results in Beijing, dropping Russia to bronze and making the United States the gold medalist. The Americans had known for months that the gold was theirs; Wednesday’s medal ceremony — which also honored Japan, now the silver medalist — was the final formal step.

“That’s what we were fighting for,” Chen said. “We really wanted to have a moment. That’s what we didn’t get in Beijing. And so, to have this moment here, it’s such a great moment for us.”

Valieva’s suspension was backdated to December 2021, so she is eligible to compete at the 2026 Olympics, though perhaps only as an individual. The IOC did not allow Russia to compete in team events in Paris due to their ongoing invasion of Ukraine, and only approved Russian and Belarusian athletes were allowed to compete under the label “Individual Neutral Athletes”.

Several Americans spoke on Wednesday about the ongoing battle to keep the sport clean.

“It really symbolizes the value of clean sport,” said Chock, an ice dancer on the 2022 team, “and I think this is a victory for clean athletes everywhere, to show that there is justice and due process.”

Much has changed for this group since the Beijing Olympics. Some have dropped out. Zhou, a singles skater, enrolled at Brown. Chock and Bates, partners on the ice, were married in June. Hubbell, an ice dancer, also got married last year and had a daughter in February. But they all reunited for a long-awaited celebration.

“Our team has been so resilient and strong during the wait,” Bates said. “We’re grateful to have a real Olympic ceremony with the national anthem and our entire team here.”

Chock said: “I couldn’t have imagined a better setting. To win our Winter Olympic medal at the Summer Olympics is something I never could have dreamed of.”