Figure Skaters Have Podium Moment in Paris

AP

13:20 JST, August 9, 2024

PARIS (AP) — A touch of winter came to the Summer Games on Wednesday when the United States figure skating team finally got its gold medals as 2022 Olympic champions.

The special medal ceremony allowed the nine Americans to parade on a runway in the bright Paris sunshine, gaze at the Eiffel Tower and bask in warm cheers from the fans packed into the stands at Champions Park.

Exactly 2½ years after the figure skating team event ended at the Beijing Olympics — and the doping saga of the winning Russian team started — the Americans got the medals that weren’t awarded at the time.

“I think it absolutely was worth the wait. Definitely,” said Karen Chen, wearing the first gold medal of her career around her neck.

All nine American skaters came to Paris, including Evan Bates, Nathan Chen, Madison Chock, Zachary Donohue, Brandon Frazier, Madison Hubbell, Alexa Knierim and Vincent Zhou. Seven of the eight members of  Japan’s team came to get their silver medals — an upgrade from their third-place result in Beijing.

The athletes were honored with a rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” not the Tchaikovsky piano piece that would have been played for the Russians in Beijing. The ceremony in France was watched by family, friends and fans. Not in a near-empty indoor ice arena in China during an Olympics staged through a COVID-19 lockdown.

“It is very memorable for all of us to be here and to get our medals,” Karen Chen said, “to just see the crowds, see everything and embrace it all.”

Knierim, who skated with Frazier in pairs, had her fingernails painted golden.

“I thought it was perfect for the occasion,” she said of a ceremony confirmed only two weeks ago.

A Russian appeal trying to win back the Olympic team title was dismissed at the Court of Arbitration for Sport just before the Paris Games opened. The title had been stripped in January when a different CAS panel disqualified Russian teenager Kamila Valieva for doping with a banned heart medication. She also was banned for four years.

No Russian skaters are getting medals in the French capital, although their third-place finish was confirmed during the Paris Olympics in yet another CAS ruling. The Russian Olympic Committee has been formally suspended from the games, but 15 individuals are competing as neutral athletes after vetting.

Canada’s skaters lost their appeal last week to have their points tally upgraded from fourth place by the International Skating Union.

“My heart goes out to them,” said Zhou, one of the new Olympic champions.

The unusual setting for a Winter Games medal ceremony had more unusual features: no podium, no bronze medalists and no flagpoles. An American flag was shown on a big screen.