Figure Skating Reallocation Medal Ceremony Taking Place In Paris After Doping Violation

Paris is hosting a medal ceremony for the figure skating team event medalists after reallocation due to a doping violation. The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) originally won gold, the US silver, and Japan bronze in the event in Beijing two years ago. Soon after those Olympics, an investigation began on then-15-year-old Kamila Valieva of the ROC as she tested positive for a banned substance two months before the Games began.

The Russian team was not present to receive their updated bronze medals.

Valieva tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine in December 2021. She was notified of the positive test after competing in the team event in Beijing where she had helped the ROC to the highest score as a team. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) had ruled at the time that she could compete for the rest of the Games, with her results being considered provisional until her case was heard.

The medal ceremony did not occur in Beijing two years ago as the IOC cited “legal issues” due to an appeal on Valieva’s participation at the Games. All athletes went without medals until today.

The CAS announced earlier this year, “Kamila Valieva is found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation and sanctioned with a four-year period of ineligibility commencing on 25 December 2021.”

With this announcement, her results were disqualified from the 2022 Olympics and the ROC lost the points that Valieva originally contributed to their score. Canada had appealed the decision on just Valieva’s point being disqualified, saying the team should be disqualified but that appeal was dismissed. The ROC, even without Valieva’s points, still scored enough for a bronze medal.

The reallocation of medals now awards the US gold, Japan silver, and the ROC bronze. This marks the first time that the US has ever won gold in the team figure skating event. The athletes received gold medals on August 7th in Champions Park in Paris.

The US team included Nathan Chen, Vincent Zhou, Karen Chen, Alexa Knierim, Brandon Frazier, Madison Chock, Evan Bates, Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue. The Japanese team in attendance included Kaori Sakamoto, Wakaba Higuchi, Yuma Kagiyama, Riku Miura, Ryuichi Kihara, Misato Komatsubara, and Tim Koleto. Shoma Uno was not in attendance.

 

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Wahooswimfan
2 months ago

Now how about corrections for the East German doping in the 70s and 80s?

Katie
2 months ago

This is NOT a reallocation ceremony. The medals were never distributed in the first place. This is the first victory ceremony for this event – and the very *first* medals awarded to these athletes, two and a half years late! Imagine all those media opportunities the swimmers have had with their medals. These athletes had no medals at all.

NoFastTwitch
2 months ago

In the first photo, it appears that ROC team members were there to receive their bronze medals. Is that correct? If so, I give the ROC team credit for showing up and deciding not to protest the outcome

JVW
Reply to  NoFastTwitch
2 months ago

I’m going to have to find the video. I’m assuming that the IOC stuck to the prohibition on Russian uniforms and flags at the Olympics, so that the Russian athletes had to wear generic athletic clothing and a neutral flag was hoisted in their place. Were the Russians allowed to compete under their own colors in 2022? My recollection is that they were.

Last edited 2 months ago by JVW
AndyB
Reply to  NoFastTwitch
2 months ago

Olympics.com showed and said it was the USA team and Japanese team that received the medals there.

Admin
Reply to  NoFastTwitch
2 months ago

I watched the ceremony live on TV, and the Russian athletes were not there. The athletes in the red jackets are from Japan.

STLcomet
Reply to  NoFastTwitch
2 months ago

No the Russian figure skaters are absolutely definitely not there. Per media: Russia is not allowed at the Paris Olympics due to the war in Ukraine, their skaters will not be allowed at the medal ceremony and will receive their bronze medals elsewhere, probably in Russia at some later date.

Last edited 2 months ago by STLcomet
AmericanDad
2 months ago

Too bad this didn’t happen for athletes of all countries after 23 Chinese swimmers failed drug tests

Binlop
Reply to  AmericanDad
2 months ago

Tested positive, didn’t receive provisional suspensions while contamination claims were investigated and in some cases were not even informed they had tested positive. Nothing to see here.

Last edited 2 months ago by Binlop
Joan
Reply to  AmericanDad
2 months ago

Too bad this didn’t happen for athletes of all countries after multiple US athletes failed drug tests and were covered without punishment by USADA in the last decade, according by WADA

Swim Canada
Reply to  Joan
2 months ago

Who are all these athletes? And cite please

Bo Swims
Reply to  AmericanDad
2 months ago

Same drug too.

Tan
2 months ago

Why is ROC getting bronze when one of their skaters has a doing violation?

JVW
Reply to  Tan
2 months ago

Perhaps the scoring is set up so that the lowest score is dropped, so Valieva’s score gets dropped due to her disqualification and a lower score from another Russian skater is substituted. That’s why they slipped two places.

Last edited 2 months ago by JVW
Katie
Reply to  JVW
2 months ago

No, that’s not how it worked at all.

Kelli
Reply to  Tan
2 months ago

They just took away the points Valieva earned with her skate from the ROC team’s point total, which still put them ahead of the fourth-place team (Canada) on points. Last I heard, Canada appealed the decision… I’m not sure if they lost the appeal or if the pressure to give out these medals in Paris was so great that they just went ahead with it without resolving the appeal first. Most people involved in figure skating (me included) are uncomfortable with ROC getting the bronze, but there is at least some logic to how they reallocated the medals. Signed, a swammer and former figure skater.

Last edited 2 months ago by Kelli
JVW
Reply to  Kelli
2 months ago

Thanks for the full info. I see on Wikipedia that Valieva initially scored 10 points each for the top routines in both the short program and the free skate. This made the original team results Russia 74 points, U.S. 65 points, Japan 63 points, Canada 53 points. When Valieva was disqualified Russia lost 20 points to drop to 54, behind the U.S. and Japan, but ahead of Canada.

Interesting though that they didn’t then bump up everyone’s score in light of her disqualification. Had they done so, each nation would have received one more point in both the women’s short and free programs, and the score would be U.S. 67 points, Japan 65 points, Canada 55 points, Russia 54 points,… Read more »

Last edited 2 months ago by JVW
Kelli
Reply to  JVW
2 months ago

Yes, that was the reason behind Canada’s appeal. It’s also why most people who follow figure skating are uncomfortable with the decision.

ScovaNotiaSwimmer
Reply to  Kelli
2 months ago

Canada lost the appeal. Such BS

swimanalyst49
Reply to  ScovaNotiaSwimmer
2 months ago

Since the bronze medals haven’t been handed out, can this decision be overturned?

Bo Swims
Reply to  Kelli
2 months ago

CAS denied our appeal. Should be like a relay.

Katie
Reply to  Bo Swims
2 months ago

It makes sense that it’s treated more like a team sport than a relay – in sports like soccer/football, rugby, baseball where substitutions can be made while a competitive event is in progress, a single positive test doesn’t disqualify the entire team, only the individual player who tested positive – but what doesn’t make sense is that the results of the women’s event weren’t re-ordered to account for the doping disqualification.

In a relay event or an individual event, when an entry is disqualified, every other entry moves up one place. That’s how the women’s event should have been treated within the team event, but instead they just dropped her points without re-ordering the results and therefore reallocating the points… Read more »

Kelli
Reply to  Bo Swims
2 months ago

I’m not saying it should be like a relay, but the points absolutely should have been reallocated after Valieva’s disqualification.

KSW
2 months ago

How can heart medication possibly enhance performance in figure skating?

AndyB
Reply to  KSW
2 months ago

It helps your body use oxygen.

Tan
Reply to  KSW
2 months ago

It was a heart medication that can improve performance.

Boknows34
Reply to  KSW
2 months ago

By reducing your heart rate.

mark
Reply to  KSW
2 months ago

That determination was made by a team of chemists, physiologist and sports medical doctors working to make sports competitions clean and fair.

There are many many drugs that have a specific approved medical use and also have other effects for which they are not prescribed. It’s call off prescription.

For instance the new weight loss medication is a drug that was made and prescribed for diabetics. Later it was found to be effective for weight loss and other things.

The heart needs to effectively use oxygen. If someone has an cardiac issue which impairs or lessens oxygen utilization efficiency a medication may prevent a heart attack buy increasing the hearts ability to use oxygen.
This obviously would be… Read more »

Last edited 2 months ago by mark
DiasBenes
Reply to  KSW
2 months ago

TMZ is a training drug. Like EPO that runners frequently use. These drugs are used in the offseason to improve performance in training. Train harder, recover quicker and build muscle faster. TMZ and EPO are frequently used with steroids to improve building muscle. Both TMZ and EPO allow athletes to train harder to build more endurance for races. Both of of these drugs also leave the system quickly so the only way to catch athletes using TMZ or EPO is to do out of competition checks. This is what caught Valieva and the Chinese Swimmers. With the Chinese swimmers we didn’t know about these tests until the New York Times exposed it.

This is a recent youtube video about… Read more »

Kelli
Reply to  KSW
2 months ago

Speaking as a swammer and a former figure skater, the 400 free and the free skate/dance (4 minutes long, plus or minus 10 seconds at the senior elite level) feel about the same in terms of aerobic effort. Using this medication would allow a figure skater to perform more difficult elements later in their program, which confers more points. So yes, taking this medication in the absence of an actual heart condition would enhance a skater’s performance.

Katie
Reply to  KSW
2 months ago

By dramatically increasing achievable training loads, super important in an endurance sport

lol
2 months ago

must be the contaminated Australian beef!

RMS
Reply to  lol
2 months ago

No, her grandpa took his BP medication and cut up some strawberries she ate. She claimed the medication came from the remnants of his hands onto the strawberries.

Awsi Dooger
Reply to  RMS
2 months ago

She tried three different excuses. One of them was contamination during the Russian nationals. Valieva had some rambling anecdote about somebody’s family member gaining access even though she lacked credentials. That was supposed to indicate lack of security.

Eventually she went with the strawberry desert excuse. The basic problem there was no evidence the grandfather actually took that medication. He claimed he did. But the investigation and 100+ page report found no prescription or other supporting evidence.

JVW
2 months ago

But the Russians just ate contaminated food at a team meal!

CasualSwimmer
Reply to  JVW
2 months ago

And the meal was clearly from Australia, it kept calling everyone “mate”

About Anya Pelshaw

Anya Pelshaw

Anya has been with SwimSwam since June 2021 as both a writer and social media coordinator. She was in attendance at the 2022, 2023, and 2024 Women's NCAA Championships writing and doing social media for SwimSwam. She also attended 2023 US Summer Nationals as well as the 2024 European Championships …

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