The worldwide skating group on Tuesday sought to finish a two-year controversy by reviewing the disputed outcomes of a determine skating competitors on the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. However stripping Russia of its victory within the workforce occasion, awarding the gold medal to the US and denying Canada the bronze it had been hoping for, the game might have simply set the stage for one more protracted authorized battle.
The revised ends had been introduced by skating's governing physique, the Worldwide Skating Union, a day after Russian teenage star Kamila Valieva was banned for 4 years for doping. The disqualification of Valieva, a 15-year-old prodigy who had led Russia to an obvious victory, had essentially the most speedy impact on the Olympic rankings: elevating the US to gold and Japan to silver, whereas, surprisingly, he left Russia simply sufficient to nonetheless declare bronze.
Inside hours, Russia's Olympic committee, already livid over Valieva's ban, introduced it will enchantment any consequence denying her the workforce's gold. Canadian officers shortly threatened to enchantment the choice as effectively. That left skating officers and the Worldwide Olympic Committee, which had chosen to not award medals within the workforce occasion till Valieva's doping case was resolved, questioning how they might lastly set up a “ceremony of respectable Olympic medals” for an unsightly dispute that appeared not shut. its finish.
The choice to permit Russia to win a medal regardless of the presence of an athlete convicted of doping has raised additional questions on Russia's affect on main sports activities our bodies. He additionally highlighted the shortcoming of world sports activities to implement the foundations on doping and to punish athletes and nations in a well timed method.
Critics have for years accused the IOC of taking a delicate strategy to Russia by issuing harsh sanctions which have additionally allowed Russian athletes and groups to take part in competitions such because the Olympics. Others famous that Russia's anti-doping company was banned when it performed the preliminary investigation into Valieva's optimistic check.
“It’s unimaginable {that a} younger lady, Valieva, is thrown below the bus with a four-year ban, however Russia is allowed to maintain the Olympic glory with the bronze”, Travis Tygart, the manager head of the Company Anti -Doping of the US. he stated. “It reeks of political favoritism, and there’s a lot of explaining to do, because the athletes deserve solutions.”
Now, reasonably than a clear decision to a scandal that has already dragged on for 2 years, determine skating – and the Olympic motion – faces the prospect of recent questions on doping and its penalties, and new appeals to the Courtroom of Arbitration of Sport that would take months, and even years, to resolve.
In reviewing the outcomes on Tuesday, the skating union stated it had disqualified Valieva and dismissed all of the factors and outcomes she had posted in competitions that befell after she submitted a optimistic pattern to drug checks. on Christmas Day in 2021. -profile of these was the Beijing Olympics weeks later, and the occasion of the workforce that carried out first within the Video games.
Their disqualification lifted the US into first place, Japan into second and dropped Russia to 3rd.
However in a curious little bit of math, the ISU solely added up the ultimate level totals for every workforce, and didn’t reallocate the 20 factors Valieva gave as much as the opposite girls's opponents. With out the 2 further factors it thought it ought to have obtained from improved finishes within the girls's brief and lengthy packages, Canada was left in fourth place — only one level behind Russia's adjusted complete.
Canada's skating federation stated it was “extraordinarily dissatisfied” and would “take into account all choices to enchantment this resolution.” He cited a provision buried deep within the skating guidelines that states that opponents “who initially positioned decrease than the disqualified Competitor(s) shall advance accordingly of their placement(s).”
The Russian Olympic committee, in the meantime, stated it was already making ready paperwork to enchantment any reallocation of the workforce's medals. In a earlier assertion on Monday, he had forged doubt on the “objectivity and impartiality” of the court docket that had banned Valieva, and as Canada pointed to the rulebook of skating to strengthen his place .
In response to these guidelines, Russia stated: “The outcomes of the workforce competitions on the 2022 Winter Olympic Video games don’t depend upon the result of the consideration of the person case of Kamila Valieva, and the prizes gained by our workforce in Beijing they can’t be submitted legally. for assessment.”
Tuesday's announcement can be stripped again It was price all the outcomes she achieved within the interval through which she was not eligible, together with not solely the workforce occasion, but additionally her fourth place within the singles occasion in Beijing and her victory within the 2022 European Championships.
His four-year ban ends in December 2025, simply in time to permit him to compete within the subsequent Olympics, in February 2026 in Italy.
A Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, on Monday derided Valieva's ban as a “political resolution.” On Tuesday, he expanded his criticism, suggesting that any consequence that took gold away from Russia was unacceptable.
“We don’t agree with these selections, neither by the court docket nor by the federation,” he stated. “We don't settle for them.”
He added: “On their return from China, from the Olympics, these athletes had been honored as Olympic champions. We’re satisfied that for us they’ll all the time stay Olympic champions. It doesn’t matter what selections have been made on this regard , even unfair”.
The ISU, skating's governing physique, stated Tuesday it will coordinate with the Worldwide Olympic Committee on the following steps in implementing its resolution — primarily the long-delayed awarding of medals from the competitors. workforce to the athletes who earned it.
The medals themselves stay in limbo. On the time it was unclear who had really gained what, so the IOC took the unprecedented step of retaining possession of the workforce's gold, silver and bronze medals to be awarded in Beijing. It was the primary time in Olympic historical past that medals weren’t awarded in a full occasion.
Ivan Nechepurenko and Juliet Macur contributed report.
