News Feed

Russia fails to regain 2022 Olympic gold lost in doping scandal

2 min read
Russia fails to regain 2022 Olympic gold lost in doping scandal
Russian Olympic figure skater Kamila Valieva performs during the sixth stage women's short program of the Rostelecom Grand Prix Russia at the Megasport Arena in Moscow on Nov. 25, 2023. (Sefa Karacan/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Russia's bid to regain the gold medal for its 2022 Olympic figure skating team has been rejected on final appeal, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled on July 25.

The Russian skating team originally won gold at the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, but were stripped of the medal in January 2024 after 15-year-old skater Kamila Valieva was disqualified for doping. Her points were subsequently subtracted from the Russian team's results.

The CAS dismissed Russia's appeal on July 25, saying the "results of Ms Valieva in the Olympic Figure Skating Team Event were correctly disqualified."

Valieva is currently serving a four-year ban after testing positive for trimetazidine, a heart medicine that can boost stamina, at the Russian national championships weeks before the Beijing Games. The ban imposed by the CAS will end in 2025, which means Valieva will be able to compete at the next Winter Olympics in 2026.

Following the deduction of Valieva's points, the Russian team will instead receive the bronze medal. The gold medal will be awarded to the United States.

The U.S. figure skating team will receive its medal at a special ceremony on Aug. 9 during the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The Games will take place between July 26 and Aug. 11.

Russian and Belarusian athletes will participate in the Olympics as neutral individual athletes, not under their country's flags. As of late July, 15 Russian and 16 Belarusian citizens had confirmed their participation in the Olympics.

Most Russian Olympic athletes violate neutrality rules, investigation suggests
Over two-thirds of Russian athletes set to participate in the upcoming Olympics have violated neutrality rules by displaying public support for the invasion of Ukraine, human rights group Global Rights Compliance reported on July 18.
Article image
Avatar
Abbey Fenbert

Senior News Editor

Abbey Fenbert is a senior news editor at the Kyiv Independent. She is a freelance writer, editor, and playwright with an MFA from Boston University. Abbey served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine from 2008-2011.

Read more
News Feed

Seaborne crude flows averaged 3.12 million barrels a day over the four weeks to July 6, a 3% decline from the previous period ending June 29, according to tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. That's the lowest level recorded since the four-week period ending Feb. 23.

Show More