Russia was deprived of gold at the 2022 Olympics due to Valieva’s doping. Now the winners are US skaters

The Russian team lost gold in figure skating at the 2022 Olympic Games after the redistribution of team tournament awards. This was reported on the website of the International Skating Union (ISU).

Initially, taking into account the performance of athlete Kamila Valieva, Russian figure skaters had two gold, three silver and one bronze medals in Beijing. However, the ISU decided to cancel the results of Valieva, who was disqualified the day before, and deprive the Russian team of 20 points that the skater earned after winning the short and free programs.

Thus, after deducting points, the Russian team dropped to third place in the standings and has 54 points. Figure skaters Mark Kondratyuk, Anastasia Mishina, Alexander Gallyamov, Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov are now bronze, not gold, medalists at the Beijing Olympics. Gold went to the USA team (65 points), silver to Japan (63 points).

France, which ranks tenth in the standings, did not beat Russia. Despite the same number of gold medals, the French have fewer silver medals. But the changes will allow the United States to get ahead of China in the team standings and rise to third place.

ROC is appealing the ISU decision to deprive the Russian team of gold in the team tournament at the 2022 Games

The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) said that it will appeal the deprivation of the Russian team of gold in the team figure skating tournament at the 2022 Games. Lawyers have already begun preparing the documents necessary to file an appeal. The committee believes that the consequences of sanctions against Kamila Valieva cannot be a basis for reviewing the results of the team tournament.

The State Duma clarified that Russia can appeal the decision within a month. According to Rima Batalova, a member of the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture and Sports, the initiator of the appeal should be the Skating Federation and the Ministry of Sports.

According to her, Russia needs to go its own way and hold competitions itself. “Our Russia is so big, can’t we really find someone to compete with even among ourselves?” – Batalova expressed her opinion.

Kamila Valieva was disqualified for four years for doping

The day before, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decided to disqualify Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva for four years for violating anti-doping rules. In this case, the period of suspension is calculated from the moment the doping test is taken – December 25, 2021.

The figure skater’s results shown from that moment on, including winning gold for winning the team tournament at the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing as part of the Russian team, were canceled. In addition, Valieva was stripped of the title of European champion 2022. The title went to Russian Anna Shcherbakova, who initially took second place.

According to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, Valieva could not prove that she did not take doping intentionally.

In response, the ROC stated that they had declared war against Russian sports, and the Swedish laboratory had deliberately held Valieva’s doping sample for more than 1.5 months. Meanwhile, the Kremlin called the CAS decision to disqualify the athlete politicized. Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov said that Russia must protect the interests of its athletes to the end and file an appeal.

At the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, Valieva won gold in the team tournament. However, after traces of the banned drug trimetazidine were found in a sample of a 15-year-old figure skater from December 2021, the award ceremony for the team tournament winners – the teams of Russia, the USA and Japan – was postponed.