GENEVA, August 2. /TASS/. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) turned down an appeal filed by the Canadian national team contesting the bronze medal in the team figure skating event at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, the Swiss-based court said in a statement on Friday.
"The CAS Panel in charge of the appeals filed by Canadian skaters Madeline Schizas, Piper Gilles, Paul Poirier, Kirsten Moore-Towers, Michael Marinaro, Eric Radford, Vanessa James and Roman Sadovsky, together with Skate Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) (collectively, the Appellants) against the re-ranking decision announced by the International Skating Union (ISU) on 30 January 2024 (the Challenged Decision) in relation to the final standings for the Team Event in figure skating at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 has issued its decision: the appeal is dismissed," the statement reads.
Based on the Swiss court’s ruling, the gold of the 2022 Beijing Olympics in the team figure skating in China will be awarded to the Team USA, Japan will get the silver and Russians, who competed at the Olympics in China under a neutral status, will retain their bronze.
According to the statement from the CAS press office: "The Appellants had sought a ruling from CAS re-ranking the figure skating Team Event as follows: reranking the figure skating Team Event, as follows: United States of America (Gold); Japan (Silver); Canada (Bronze)."
"Following the hearing that took place on 22 July 2024, the Panel of CAS arbitrators in charge of the matter deliberated and concluded that the results of the Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva in the Olympic Figure Skating Team Event were correctly disqualified, without any possibility in the ISU Rules to re-allocate points in favor of Team Canada, following the retroactive disqualification of Kamila Valieva," the court announced in its statement.
On January 29, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled to disqualify Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva for four years for violating anti-doping rules starting on December 25, 2021.
The International Skating Union (ISU) decided on January 30 to strip Russia of its gold medal at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing in the team figure skating event by taking away some of the team’s previously earned points and subsequently awarding it the bronze medal.
The Swiss-based court registered appeals from the Canadian national team, the Skate Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC). Canada asks to downshift the Russian figure skating team to fourth position in the results of the 2022 Olympic Games competition in figure skating and up its team to 3rd position.
Valieva’s doping case
On February 14, 2022, 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, 2022, 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 awards ceremony for the 2022 Olympic team competition, won by Russia.
RUSADA imposed a provisional suspension on Valieva on February 8, 2022, but the Russian athlete submitted an appeal and it was granted the following day. The previous decision on the provisional suspension was voided by the RUSADA Disciplinary Committee.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Skating Union (ISU) filed appeals against this decision but the Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected them on February 14, 2022. The Russian skater was permitted to compete in the individual Olympic competition and finished fourth.