Russian figure skaters set to get Olympic bronze ahead of Canada despite Valieva’s disqualification

By GRAHAM DUNBAR
AP Sports Writer

GENEVA (AP) — Despite the disqualification of Kamila Valieva in a doping case, the Russian figure skating team still stands to finish on the podium and get bronze medals from the 2022 Beijing Olympics behind the United States and Japan.

The Americans moved into the gold medal position in the team event and Japan has been upgraded to silver from bronze. The demoted Russians drop into third place, one point ahead of Canada even after being stripped of the points the then-15-year-old Valieva earned on the ice.

The International Skating Union published an amended standings from the Beijing competition on Tuesday that removed Valieva’s maximum 10 points from each of her two events but did not add an extra point to the other teams below her.

The proposal by the ISU is likely to provoke fresh legal action at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which on Monday disqualified Valieva from the 2022 Olympics and other events, and banned her for four years until December 2025.

Russian Olympic officials said Tuesday they will appeal to regain the Olympic title, arguing that ISU rules mean sanctions against Valieva “cannot be the basis for reviewing the results of the team event.”

A second challenge at CAS could come from fourth-place Canada because the rest of the field did not have their points increased by the ISU following Valieva’s disqualification.

“Skate Canada strongly disagrees with the ISU’s position on this matter and will consider all options to appeal this decision,” the country’s figure skating body said in a statement Tuesday.

The final decision on awarding medals is for the International Olympic Committee, which the head of the United States Olympic and Paralympic body said Tuesday is “as eager as we are” to get the gold medals to the American skaters.

“There is no scenario at this point in which Team USA is not the gold medal winners,” USOPC chief executive Sarah Hirshland told reporters on a call, “so we are focused on getting the gold medals awarded.”

Skating’s world body is responsible for amending the Olympic event result and said Tuesday it had consulted with the IOC.

“The ISU is in close contact with the International Olympic Committee and the relevant ISU member federations in regard to the implementation of this decision,” the governing body said Tuesday.

The unprecedented turmoil of canceling the medal ceremony at the Olympics has tested the rules of figure skating’s team event, which debuted at the 2014 Sochi Games. The Russians and Canadians traded gold and silver at the first two editions.

In the newly updated Beijing result, Canada still gets eight points out of 10 from the women’s short program and free skate sections, where its skater was Madeline Schizas. Japan still gets nine points each for originally finishing second to Valieva — Wakaba Higuchi in the short program and Kaori Sakamoto in the free skate.

Canada’s overall point total remained at 53 while the Russians’ tally dropped from 74 to 54 — enough for the bronze medals for everyone on the team except the disqualified Valieva.

Skate Canada praised the ruling to disqualify Valieva, which it said “underscores the significance of stringent anti-doping measures and the need for continuous vigilance in protecting the integrity of figure skating and all sports.”

A Canadian appeal to CAS in Lausanne, Switzerland, could extend the case for about another year.

The team event medal ceremony did not take place in Beijing because details of Valieva’s positive test for a banned heart medicine emerged only hours after she skated in the Russian team’s win.

One option for getting the medals would be at the Summer Games in Paris that open July 26, U.S. ice dancer Madison Chock said Tuesday.

“That would be the dream scenario … stand atop a podium at an Olympic event and be there with our families,” Chock said. Asked if that moment could be shared with the Russians, Chock said: “I just want to be standing up there with all nine of us on the top spot of the podium, hand over the heart, singing the national anthem.”

Valieva tested positive for trimetazidine in a sample taken on Dec. 25, 2021, at the Russian national championships. Testing at a World Anti-Doping Agency-approved laboratory in Stockholm, Sweden, was delayed by staffing shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The unusual circumstances, and Valieva’s status as a minor, persuaded a separate CAS panel in Beijing to let her continue skating in the individual women’s event. Under extreme scrutiny, she finished fourth in an error-filled skate.

Valieva’s lawyers argued her positive test was because of contamination from medication they claimed her grandfather took. She also was taking two oxygen-boosting medications not banned in sports.

There was skepticism Valieva was a victim of an institutional culture in Russian sports of doping and lack of duty of care to young athletes. She had competed in Beijing under the team acronym “ROC” — the third straight Olympics the country’s athletes could not be called “Russia” because of ongoing fallout from the state-backed doping program at the 2014 Sochi Games at home.

In Russia on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Valieva and her five teammates from two years ago were still considered winners.

“Upon their return from China we honored these athletes as Olympic champions,” Peskov said. “We are convinced that they will always remain Olympic champions to us, whatever decisions may be taken in that regard, even unfair ones.”

The IOC executive board will next meet from March 19-21 in Lausanne, at the same time Canada hosts the figure skating world championships in Montreal.

The Olympic leadership is currently in South Korea for the Youth Winter Games and could address the skating medal issue there.

Valieva also lost the European title she won in January 2022, the ISU said. That title now goes to teammate Anna Shcherbakova, the Olympic champion two years ago.

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AP Sports Writer James Ellingworth in Duesseldorf, Germany, contributed to this report.

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