MOSCOW, February 17. /TASS/. The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) sent a letter to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) requesting to hold a medal awarding ceremony in the figure skating team and women’s singles competitions at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin said on Thursday.
"ROC has filed a relevant request with the IOC asking it to organize the awarding ceremony, because it concerns not only athletes from Russia, but athletes from other countries as well who participated in the competition and also won medals in [women’s] figure skating singles," Matytsin said speaking in an interview with Russia’s Rossiya-24 television channel.
"Until the guilty are found and the details established, the [awarding] ceremony must be held," Matytsin said.
Mark Adams, a spokesperson for the International Olympic Committee, stated on Wednesday that results of the women’s singles competition at the 2022 Olympics would be labeled as ‘preliminary’ should Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva finish the event on the podium. He also labeled as ‘preliminary’ results of the figure skating team competitions, which Team ROC finished in the 1st place with Valieva among the participants.
Valieva is the youngest participant of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games at the age of 15. The figure skater is trained by Russia’s merited coach Eteri Tutberidze and she is the reigning champion of the European and Russian championships. She holds the World Records in ladies singles short program (90.45 points), in ladies’ free skate program (185.29 points) and in the combined result of two programs in ladies’ competitions (272.71 points).
Two days ago, Valieva finished in the top following the short program in women’s singles event. Judges awarded Valieva 82.16 points for her short program. Her teammate Anna Shcherbakova earned 80.20 points finishing 2nd in the short program and Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto showed the 3rd best result of 79.84 points. The free skate program in women’s singles at the 2022 Olympics is running on Thursday.
2022 Olympics Figure Skating Team competition
ROC 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).
Valieva’s suspected doping case
On February 14, 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 Kamila Valieva.
The International Testing Agency announced on February 11 that Valieva’s doping sample, collected on December 25, 2021, during the Russian Figure Skating Championships in St. Petersburg, returned a positive result for a banned substance, trimetazidine. 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.
USA Today daily reported on February 16 citing IOC (the International Olympic Committee) member Denis Oswald as saying that trimetazidine entered her body system through a medication prescribed for her grandfather.