U.S. Figure Skating Team Still Doesn’t Have Medals 500 Days After Beijing Olympics Event

More than 500 days after medaling at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, the U.S. figure skating team is still waiting to receive their prizes.

Despite winning silver at the 2022 Games, the U.S. team hasn’t received its medals yet as the World Anti-Doping Agency continues to investigate the Russian doping scandal that upended the Olympic event. 

The repercussions of Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva allegedly using a banned performance-enhancing substance has left the U.S. team in limbo, either waiting to receive silver medals or the gold medals the Russian team may be stripped of because of the doping scandal.

On Thursday, which was 500 days after the U.S. team’s podium-worthy performance, its skaters and team officials criticized the length of the investigation and said it’s a “shame” the air has been taken out of its team’s monumental achievement.

“As the time has gone by, it almost feels like it didn’t happen at times,” skater Madison Chock told The Associated Press. “And when we think about it, it’s hard not to get emotional and just feel kind of sad about the whole situation, and how it’s turned out and how long it’s taking to be handled.”

The AP reported that the Court of Arbitration for Sport had set hearing dates for late September in hopes of finally settling the matter surrounding Valieva and the Russian team. In the meantime, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum in Colorado Springs, Colo., has opened up a new exhibit showing off the nine empty boxes where the team’s medals were supposed to be kept, emphasizing the fallout from the scandal.

“You want to cross the finish line and be awarded for that race, or for what you have accomplished in that moment,” skater Evan Bates said. “The exclamation point on the sentence is not supposed to come, like, 10 sentences later, or in the next paragraph.”

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Bates said “it’s such a shame this moment hasn’t taken place and there’s still no closure or resolution to this so many months later.”

The U.S. figure skating team has said in previous statements that it is “deeply frustrated by the lack of a final decision” and that its skaters “deserved the recognition that has been withheld due to the ongoing process.”

Valieva, who was 15 years old at the time, reportedly tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine, a heart medication, back in December 2021. News of the drug test came out during the Olympics, shortly after she helped the Russian team win gold. The young skater also tested positive for two other heart medication drugs — hypoxen and L-Carnitine — which are not banned, but unusual for a teenage athlete to be prescribed.

Legal hearings over the case have taken place in Beijing, Russia and Switzerland, according to the AP.

“In my opinion, the common American out there would be shocked right now,” U.S. Figure Skating CEO Tracy Marek told the outlet. “In retrospect, they might say, ‘Oh, yeah, I remember that.’ But they would probably be shocked to know that these athletes have achieved one of sports’ greatest accomplishments and they’ve received an empty box.”