Figure skating team event medals unlikely to be awarded before conclusion of Beijing Winter Olympics

It is unlikely that the medal ceremony for the figure skating team event will take place before the end of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

“No, this [allocation of team event medals] will not be sorted out by this decision,” Mark Adams, IOC’s Spokesman, said during a media briefing this Monday.

“It’s a dilemma we are all in, and it’s not something we’re happy with. that will not be probably sorted here during these Games, and it’s something that is regrettable, but we have to follow the process of CAS and the legal process.”

The team event has had an asterisk next to the results since it was reported that Russian Olympic Committee skater, Kamila Valieva, had tested positive for the banned drug trimetazidine. The medal ceremony has hung in limbo since the announcement was made, with questions still lingering about the final results in the event.

It would be an unprecedented conundrum for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) if the medal ceremony wasn’t to take place before the end of the 2022 Winter Olympics. According to Olympic historian Bill Mallon, there has never been a case, to his knowledge, where a medal ceremony hasn’t taken place during the duration of the Games.

There have been subsequent medal ceremonies to reallocate medals for various reasons, but the postponement of an entire medal ceremony until after the Winter Olympics have concluded would seem to be a first for the Olympic movement.

Adams was also clear that the IOC’s current court case against RUSADA would not remedy the results of the team event, as the case only applies to the suspension of Valieva from competition.