BEIJING, February 14. /TASS/. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has decided to postpone indefinitely the awarding ceremony for the winners of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, the IOC press office said in a statement on Monday.
"In the interest of fairness to all athletes and the NOCs concerned, it would not be appropriate to hold the medal ceremony for the figure skating team event during the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 as it would include an athlete who on the one hand has a positive A-sample, but whose violation of the anti-doping rules has not yet been established on the other hand," the statement reads.
Valieva’s controversial Olympics debut
Earlier in the day, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) turned down an appeal filed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), and the International Skating Union (ISU) against the decision of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) to lift a temporary suspension of Russian figure skater Valieva.
The International Testing Agency announced on February 11 that Valieva’s doping sample, collected on December 25, 2022, during the Russian Figure Skating Championships in St. Petersburg, returned a positive result for a banned substance. This triggered the postponement of the awarding ceremony of the 2022 Olympic team competition, won by Russia.
RUSADA imposed a provisional suspension on Valieva on February 8, but the Russian athlete submitted an appeal and it was satisfied the following day. The previous decision on the provisional suspension was cancelled by the RUSADA Disciplinary Committee.
However, the ISU, IOC and WADA filed their appeals later with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in order to overturn the previous decision of the RUSADA Disciplinary Committee.
ROC at 2022 Olympics Figure Skating Team competition
ROC (the Russian Olympic Committee) figure skaters clinched the gold in the team competition at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing on February 7. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) later cancelled the medals awarding ceremony in Beijing for the figure skating team competition’s winners citing legal obstacles, which had to be settled with the International Skating Union (ISU).
Valieva scored 178.92 points, taking the top prize in the women’s free skate event, which closed the team competition. Team ROC ended the figure skating team competition with a total of 74 points to clinch the gold.
ROC’s Mark Kondratyuk represented the team in the men’s singles and Valieva in the women’s singles. Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Galliamov skated in the pairs’ competitions and Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov in ice dancing.
Valieva won the short and free skating events. Kondratyuk came in third in the short event and second in the free event. Mishina and Galliamov won in the free skating and were runners-up in the short event. Sinitsina and Katsalapov finished second in both events.
Team USA took home the silver with judges awarding them an aggregate of 65 points, only two points ahead of the bronze medal winners from Japan (63 points).
The 2022 Winter Olympic Games in the Chinese capital of Beijing are being held between February 4 and 20. During the 128th IOC session in Kuala Lumpur on July 31, 2015, Beijing was chosen to host the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games making the Chinese capital the first city ever to host both the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games (in 2008) as well as the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games (in 2022).