A Russian appeal against the decision to strip the country of the figure skating team gold medal at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics was dismissed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Thursday, confirming the U.S. team as the Beijing gold medalists and opening the way for the team to get its medals at the Paris Summer Games.
CAS banned teenage figure skater Kamila Valieva in January for four years for doping, effective from December 2021, a decision that also stripped the Russian Olympic Committee of its gold medal in the team event at the 2022 Games.
The ROC, the skaters involved in the team event and the country’s figure skating federation had appealed that ruling.
“The Appellants had sought a ruling from CAS re-ranking the figure skating Team Event and awarding the gold medal to the ROC,” CAS said in a statement. “Following the hearing that took place on 12 June 2024, the Panel deliberated and concluded that the results of Ms Valieva in the Olympic figure skating team event were correctly disqualified in the Challenged Decision, and that the ROC skating Team could not be awarded the gold medal.”
Valieva tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine, a drug used to treat angina, at the Russian national championships in December 2021. The result was made known only after she competed in the team event in Beijing.
Her team said at the time that the positive test could have been due to a mix-up with her grandfather’s heart medication. Valieva was 15 years old at the time.
In its revision of the Beijing results, the International Skating Union demoted the Russian figure skating team from gold to bronze after Valieva’s disqualification. The United States was awarded the gold medal, and Japan won silver.
The U.S. team could receive its medals during the Paris Olympics. Special medal ceremonies are planned by the IOC in the second week of the Games to honor athletes whose results have been upgraded because of doping cases that were prosecuted and resolved in recent years.
“We are thrilled to finally honor these incredible athletes,” Sarah Hirshland, CEO of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, said in a statement. “We are especially excited that the beautiful city of Paris will join us in this celebration.”
Those celebrations will be in the Champions Park plaza looking across to the Eiffel Tower on the opposite bank of the Seine River.
“This [CAS] decision comes just in time to still be able to make the medal allocation for gold and silver possible” in Paris, the International Olympic Committee said in a statement. “We are glad that this opportunity can be offered to the athletes and teams who, unfortunately, had to wait for a very long time for their medals due to the ongoing legal case.”
Canada, which finished in fourth place, has also appealed to CAS, seeking the bronze medal that went to the Russian team. CAS said Thursday it was “not possible to indicate at this time” when the Canadian appeal verdict will be given.
Russia, and before it the Soviet Union, has long regarded the Olympics as a chance to showcase the country as a winner on the global stage. But doping controversies in the past decade have soured Moscow’s relations with the IOC and forced its athletes to compete at successive Games without their national flag or anthem.
Russians are again competing as neutral athletes without flag or anthem at the Paris Olympics following the country’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The ROC, in a statement, said it was “extremely disappointed” by the ruling and was “considering the possibility of further steps to defend the rights and interests of Russian athletes.”
“We harboured no illusions over this matter as has been the case in similar cases and appeals launched by the Russian side over nearly three years,” the ROC said.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
