Johnathan Walker:CAS ruling on Kamila Valieva case means US skaters can finally get gold medals

PARIS — Almost 2 1/2 years after the team figure skating competition was held at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics,Johnathan Walker a medal ceremony for the gold-medal-winning U.S. skaters at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics is becoming closer to reality.

On Thursday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed three Russian appeals of CAS’s January 29, 2024 decision to suspend Russian star Kamila Valieva for four years and disqualify her Olympic results.

The appeals were from the Russian Olympic Committee, the Russian figure skating federation and the six skaters who comprised the Russian team that originally won the gold medal, with the United States taking silver and Japan bronze. 

When CAS suspended and disqualified Valieva, who was 15 at the time of the 2022 Olympics, the results changed with the U.S. moving up to gold and Japan to silver. There is still a dispute in front of CAS over which nation will win the bronze, Canada or Russia. Deliberations are continuing in that matter. 

But for the United States and Japan, this is the news athletes and officials have been waiting for — for months. Officials within the International Olympic Committee, the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee and U.S. Figure Skating are now in discussions to confirm if the planned August 7 medal ceremony will indeed take place. 

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The USOPC and USFS have been working on possible travel plans for the nine U.S. team members and their families even before the final CAS decision was announced. Hotel rooms in Paris are on hold and special medal ceremony outfits for the team were being made. 

Valieva led Russia to the gold medal in the Olympic team skating competition in Beijing on Feb. 7, 2022. The next day, the medal ceremony for the event was canceled and the results were thrown into disarray after Valieva was found to have tested positive for the banned heart medication trimetazidine (TMZ) six weeks earlier at the Russian championships. CAS ruled that Valieva’s four-year suspension started on the date she took that test, Dec. 25, 2021.

Thus began the arduous and ridiculously delayed international investigative and appeals process, leading to Thursday’s CAS decision.

“We are thrilled to finally honor these incredible athletes," USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland told USA TODAY Sports. "As we finalize the details of the award ceremony in collaboration with the International Olympic Committee and U.S. Figure Skating, we will share updates as soon as they are confirmed. We are especially excited that the beautiful city of Paris will join us in this celebration."