Nine figure skaters from the United States filed a petition against the International Olympic Committee requesting that their silver medals be presented in public. The petition was dismissed.
After a virtual hearing in Beijing, the Court of Arbitration for Sport made their decision.
The global sports arbitrator evaluated the applications of skaters Evan Bates and Nathan Chen, Madison Chock and Zachary Donohue as well as Madison Hubbell, Madison Frazier, Madison Hubbell (and Alexa Knierim) — who all won silver medals in team figure skating. However, the event was marred by a Doping Positive by Kamila Valieva, a 15-year-old Russian.
Olympic officials decided not to perform a medal ceremony in the team figure skating event. This means that U.S. figure skaters will be leaving the Olympics without medals.
The appeal was filed by the nine U.S. skating champions to overturn the Olympic officials’ decision. According to Court of Arbitration for Sport, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee were not parties to the appeal that resulted in the dismissal of the appeal on Saturday.
The arbiter didn’t elaborate on the decision but said that it would provide details in the coming days.
The U.S. Skaters will be awarded their medals in months or even years after Valieva’s appeal is resolved.
The Russian team won the event with Valieva, but if the result is rescheduled, the gold medals would go to the United States.
The U.S. Skaters had tried unsuccessfully to argue that they should receive at least the silvers prior to Saturday’s appeal rejection.
