BEIJING — With the clock running out on the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, nine Team USA figure skaters made a final bid to force the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to hold a public medal ceremony for the team event.
They lost.
The skaters, who earned the silver medal on February 7, were disappointed when their medal ceremony was delayed. Then they were dismayed when the IOC decided to cancel the ceremony altogether because Kamila Valieva’s doping case is not yet concluded. Valieva helped the Russian Olympic Committee team win the gold, but if she is suspended, the whole team could be disqualified. The IOC figured it would be cleaner to scrap the ceremony than to reallocate medals months later.
So, the skaters retained a lawyer. The case is called “Evan Bates, Karen Chen, Nathan Chen, Madison Chock, Zachary Donohue, Brandon Frazier, Madison Hubbell, Alexa Knierim and Vincent Zhou v. IOC.”
The Ad hoc Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) dismissed the skaters’ application Saturday night after holding a 2 ½-hour hearing by video conference.
The same CAS division also ruled Valieva be allowed to compete in the women’s singles event.
The Panel of arbitrators was composed of President Lars Hilliger of Denmark, Alain Zahlan de Cayetti of France and Xianyue Bai of China.
“I can speak on behalf of all Team USA,” said Frazier. “We want the medal ceremony to happen to receive those medals to acknowledge all the hard work everyone’s done. It’s a ceremony for a reason.”
Knierim, his pairs partner, was even more succinct.
“What did we do to not deserve our reward?” she said. “Why are we punished for something we didn’t do?”
Frazier added that the silver medals — even if they have to be replaced later — “would put the final piece of what would be the Olympic dream for us into the puzzle. And we just think we can all rest a little more that our team got what we worked for.”
Japan won the bronze medal. If the Russian Olympic Committee team is disqualified, Canada would win the bronze as the other teams move up one step on the podium.
A reasoned decision will be released in the next few days.
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