Team USA’s figure skating team will finally receive the gold medals it earned from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics on August 7 in a special reallocation event in Paris following the Kamila Valieva doping case fallout.
International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams announced on Monday that the delayed ceremony will take place at the Paris Games’ Champions Park, where the 2024 Summer Olympics’ medal winners receive their hardware.
Initially, Valieva and the other members of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) squad were awarded first place in the team figure skating event. However, the results were nullified when Valieva was disqualified for an anti-doping rule violation.
The reallocation also means that the team from Japan will be awarded the silver medals.
Adams mentioned, “You can never replace the moment of winning or the moment of victory and the medal allocation during the Games. But I think it was felt, and clearly the athletes agree that this is as good a place as any.”
As for the bronze medal, it remains uncertain. Canada had filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) earlier this year, seeking to move up to the bronze position. CAS stated last week that it is still reviewing Canada’s appeal. Currently, the ROC holds the third position after the reallocation.
Adams also revealed that another allocation ceremony is scheduled to take place in Paris on August 9. Ten other athletes will be presented with medals following retroactive results decisions from three previous Summer Olympic Games.
