American Olympic figure skaters still owe gold medals after the Russian doping scandal at the 2022 Beijing Games and want to receive their awards during a special ceremony at the upcoming Paris Summer Olympics.
American ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates touted the idea, with Chock calling it “our dream scenario,” as they spoke Tuesday for the first time since an international sports panel recently decided to award them and the rest of the figure skating team of US gold. medals in the team event.
The United States’ long-awaited medal victory came after Russian team member Kamila Valieva was retroactively disqualified for doping at the last Winter Olympics, moving the U.S. team up from silver.
Valieva tested positive for a banned heart medication six weeks before she ran on the ice in Beijing, but the test results only came to light hours after the 15-year-old competed in the Winter Games.
The International Olympic Committee decided not to hold a medal ceremony in the team event at the time until an investigation was conducted, and the findings were finally made public on Monday.
Ice dance champions Evan Bates and Madison Chock want to receive their long-awaited gold medals from the Beijing Olympics at the upcoming Paris Summer Games. AFP via Getty Images
The US skating team, which was deprived of its Olympic moment atop the podium in 2022, said it now hopes to recapture some of that magic during the 2024 Summer Games if the International Olympic Committee allows it. .
“When all of this initially happened, the first thing that came to everyone’s mind was that we would love to have a real Olympic medal ceremony, and for us that would be a medal ceremony at the Paris Games this summer,” Chock said, referring to the panel’s decision during a 30-minute teleconference hosted by the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
“To be able to stand at the 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 the scenario of our dreams,” he added.
USOPC Executive Director Sarah Hirshland said on the call with reporters that the time, location and logistics of the medal ceremony have not yet been set.
Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva was retroactively disqualified for doping during the 2022 Winter Games. AP
The other American skaters who will receive a team gold medal are Karen Chen, Nathan Chen, Zachary Donohue, Brandon Frazier, Madison Hubbell, Alexa Knierim and Vincent Zhou.
According to the International Skating Union’s unprecedented ruling issued on Monday, Japan has moved from bronze to silver.
But the ISU said the Russian team’s skaters will still capture bronze, having come in one point ahead of Canada even after being stripped of the points Valieva earned with her short and free-ice programs.
Furious Canadian officials said they could appeal the ruling.
Chock and Bates are the only two skaters from the 2022 US team still competing. AFP via Getty Images
Russia will also almost certainly appeal the gold medal verdict, but Hirshland insisted that such a move will have no bearing on the timing of the medal ceremony for the nine American athletes.
“There is no scenario right now where Team USA is not the gold medal winner,” he said. “There is no reason for any delay.”
As for the whereabouts of the gold medals that were supposed to be awarded in Beijing, Hirshland said she is not “100% sure” where the valuable sports equipment is located right now, but she has a good guess.
“My best guess is that those medals are probably stored in a very secure location in Lausanne, Switzerland, waiting to be delivered,” he said, referring to the IOC headquarters.
Ice dancers Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue, retired since the last Winter Olympics, will be among the American skaters to receive gold medals for the 2022 team event. Getty Images
Chock and her former teammate and fiancé, Bates, fresh off winning their fifth national title, which they clinched over the weekend in Ohio, welcomed the court’s decision that was nearly two years in the making.
“It’s just a feeling I’ve always dreamed of and I almost can’t believe I’m here,” Chock said. “It has been a very happy 24th of news for us.”
The elite athlete admitted that the controversy that rocked Olympic figure skating in Beijing, followed by more than 700 days of waiting for a result, has clouded her experience.
“We never anticipated that it would take us two years to receive the results or receive our medal,” Chock said. “There was a little bit of an underlying feeling of maybe a little bit of sadness and disappointment that we didn’t have that Olympic moment.”
But now he said, “It almost feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. … It almost feels like we are celebrating our Olympic experience once again.”
Bates said the skaters had no idea about the court proceedings and didn’t know how the case would turn out until the last moment.
Vincent Zhou was part of the US team that competed in Beijing in 2022 and was denied gold in skating. fake images
“It’s been a pretty surreal experience,” the ice dancing champion said. “When we went to bed on Sunday night, we were preparing for the news that it was going to be silver, and we woke up to the incredible news that it was gold.”
Of the nine athletes who made the U.S. team in Beijing, Chock, 31, and Bates, 34, are the only skaters still competing today. The other seven have already retired from the sport.
Bates said he prefers to focus on the positive aspects of the ruling, namely that the verdict is a vindication for “clean” athletes who compete without the use of banned performance-enhancing drugs.
“I think this is a historic case, something monumental. This is an unprecedented event in which clean athletes in their twenties left the Olympic Games without a medal they won cleanly. And yesterday, I think, in large part the discovery of [the panel] brought some justice to the clean sport movement,” he said.
Valieva tested positive for a banned heart medication weeks before the Olympics, but her results only came to light hours after taking to the ice at the Games. AP
“I think clean athletes around the world will hopefully find some joy and some… comfort in knowing that clean sport is important and that the fight against doping is ongoing,” Bates added.
Even if Russia keeps the bronze ahead of Canada, Valieva will not receive any medals due to the ruling.
The decision also banned the Russian, now 18, for four years from December 25, 2021, the date of the positive test. The ruling renders Valieva’s results void after that date; she will finish about two months before the next Winter Games in Italy in 2026.
Russia immediately criticized the verdict, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissing it as “politicized.”
With post cables
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Source: vtt.edu.vn