US, Japan figure skaters will finally get their 2022 Winter Olympics medals after Russia doping case

PARIS (AP) — U.S. and Japanese figure skaters finally have a date at the Paris Olympics next week to get their Beijing Winter Games medals — exactly 2 ½ years after they earned them in a team event upended by a Russian doping case.

A presentation ceremony for skating’s team event from February 2022 will be held Aug. 7 at 5 p.m. in Paris, the International Olympic Committee said Monday.

The U.S. and Japan placed second and third behind Russia but no team skating medals were awarded in Beijing because Russian teenage star Kamila Valieva within hours was implicated in a doping case that took almost two years to judge.

The U.S. skaters formally became Olympic champions after Russian appeals seeking to regain the title were dismissed last week by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The medals will be awarded beneath the Eiffel Tower at the Champions Park site where VIPs watched the Paris Olympics opening ceremony.

Valieva was disqualified from the Beijing Olympics and banned for four years by a CAS panel of judges in January.

The latest round of Russian appeals challenged how the International Skating Union amended the Beijing result after the January ruling. That left the Russians in third place and Canada fourth.

It wasn't immediately clear whether the bronze medals would also be presented in Paris. A Canadian appeal to be given the bronze is currently being judged by CAS, which held a hearing on July 22.

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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games