A year later, still no team medals at the 2022 Beijing Olympics: NPR

It’s a not-so-happy Olympic birthday this week.

A year ago, Russia won the team figure skating event at the Beijing Winter Games, powered by teenage phenom Kamila Valieva. But his positive doping test marred the Games and left the team’s results in limbo.

Always.

Valieva’s case remains unsolved and the Olympic athletes, including the USA team runners-up, do not yet have their medals.

No kidding

On the first day of the team event last February, Zach Donohue and his American ice dance partner Madison Hubbell did their part.

Their personal best score gave the United States an early lead.

But on the final day of competition, Valieva, then 15, a pre-Olympic favourite, was as good as advertised. She made history by becoming the first skater to land a quadruple revolution jump at the Olympics…she landed two in his performance… and led the Russians to victory, just ahead of the United States

Donohue remembers the next day as the American skaters prepared to head to the ceremony where they would claim their silver medals.

“We were dressed in our ceremonial gear,” Donohue said, “in a room waiting to catch a bus to get to the venue. And we’re told, uh, so [the ceremony] is canceled. And we’re like ‘ha ha ha. Yes indeed. Good joke. That’s cool, let’s go.'”

But a team manager told them it was no joke. There was a doping problem and the official could not say more.

“So for all of us,” Donohue said, “the first step was a kind of disbelieving wonder.”

More emotions followed, such as frustration and disappointment, as the information emerged.

Valieva tested positive for a banned drug from a sample taken more than a month before the Beijing Games. His case should have been resolved, but was not by the time the Olympics began. Once her positive test was confirmed, after the team event, Valieva was cleared to continue competing in Beijing.

And then the months started rolling by, still with no resolution.

“[There was] outrage and righteous disbelief,” Donohue said, “that is still the situation.”

salt on wounds

Donohue says there have been a lot of casualties for the team’s athletes. They missed their memorable moment of Olympic victory. Those like him who have since retired have missed out on financial opportunities through bonuses, show appearances and sponsorships. Those who are still in competition cannot participate in their events with the status and title of Olympic medalist.

But he believes the continued delay has an even bigger impact, beyond the individual athletes on the team.

“The Olympics are something very special,” Donohue said. “It’s a neutral playing field [where athletes] come out in front of the world, declare their hard work and their dedication and their determination and their courage and their integrity of who they are as athletes.”

“The long-delayed decision really undermines the integrity of the Olympic image and the Olympic values. And I think it takes away a lot from the integrity that the majority of athletes choose, in the choices they make at the Olympics. how they train, how they eat, how they recover.”

“SO [the] the conversation was much more than just a medal ceremony at stake here. [It’s about] the way the world views sport and the way the world views, in particular, figure skating. And that’s something that’s really in danger.”

And now a recent decision in the Valieva case has apparently made matters worse.

“We’re here now,” anti-doping chief Travis Tygart said, “throwing salt on those wounds.”

Tygart, CEO of the US Anti-Doping Agency, said the salt came last month when Russia’s anti-doping agency, RUSADA, decided to clear Valieva of wrongdoing. Tygart says the decision lacked transparency and independence and was made by an organization declared non-compliant as early as 2015.

“[Rusada] was declared non-compliant for its involvement as an instrument of the state,” Tygart said, “[for] running a state-sponsored intentional doping program where they knowingly donated and aided Russian athletes to use drugs there, knowingly sent them to international competitions in order to rob other athletes and win at most high level.”

“And why did we ever think we could trust this system to have a fair, objective and independent decision [on Valieva]? It’s quite infuriating.”

In Russia, an attitude that would have persisted for years is that in elite sport, everyone is doping but only the Russians are penalized.

“We welcome the decision of the RUSADA Disciplinary Committee,” Dmitry Svishchev said last month. He is Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture and Sport. “I’m sure there is a strongly supported motivational decision behind such a decision.”

Another shot at credibility

The World Anti-Doping Agency, WADA, says it is likely to appeal the Valieva decision.

Tygart says it’s imperative.

“In the interest of the credibility of the global anti-doping system,” Tygart said, “[WADA] must make a decision to appeal this case. If they don’t, frankly, that would be important. [In] in the eyes of the athlete-watching public and those of us who have been fighting for clean sport for so many years, that would be close to a fatal blow to the credibility of the system.”

WADA, he said, is not beyond reproach in this matter; neither is the international figure skating governing body.

“You know, both of them could have gone straight to [the Court of Arbitration for Sport]and took [the decision] out of Russian hands. And that’s what we asked for. ‘Cause we knew, you can’t have a non-compliant [organization] make a fair and balanced decision.”

Instead, it is now a year later and anti-doping efforts in Olympic sport have taken another credibility hit. Athletes from USA, Japan [3^rd place in the team event] and yes, Russia, wait and ask about their medals.

Although, not always.

“I have to be honest, there were several times I looked at this email [updating U.S. athletes on the Valieva case]”, said Donohue, “and say ‘oh my God, I forgot I’m waiting for a medal.’ It’s been so long that it’s not even relevant anymore.”

He will be relevant however, when Valieva’s guilt or innocence is ultimately decided. And when all the athletes come together to accept the medals that resolve brings. That could include skaters from Canada, who finished fourth in the Olympic team event, but could move up the standings if a guilty verdict disqualifies not only Valieva, but also her Russian team.

For the athletes waiting, Donohue says he’s heard they want their stolen Olympic moment to be truly Olympic this time around. That means a possible medal ceremony at next year’s Summer Games in Paris.

Assuming the case East closed by then.