International skating’s governing physique on Tuesday sought to place an finish to a two-year-old controversy by revising the disputed outcomes of a marquee determine skating competitors on the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. But in stripping Russia of its victory within the group occasion, awarding the gold medal to the United States and denying Canada the bronze it had been anticipating, the game might have solely set the stage for yet one more protracted authorized struggle.
The revised finishes have been introduced by the skating physique, the International Skating Union, sooner or later after the teenage Russian star Kamila Valieva was banned for 4 years for doping. Disqualifying Valieva, a 15-year-old prodigy who had led Russia to an obvious victory, had essentially the most instant impact on the Olympic group standings: elevating the U.S. to gold and Japan to silver, whereas, surprisingly, dropping Russia simply sufficient that it may nonetheless declare the bronze.
Within hours, Russia’s Olympic committee, already livid about Valieva’s ban, introduced that it will attraction any final result that denied it the group gold. Canadian officers shortly threatened to attraction the ruling as properly. That left skating officers and the International Olympic Committee, which had chosen to not award medals within the group occasion till Valieva’s doping case was resolved, questioning how they might ultimately prepare a “dignified Olympic medal ceremony” for an unpleasant dispute that appeared nowhere close to its finish.
The determination to permit Russia to earn a medal regardless of the presence of an athlete convicted of doping raised but extra questions on Russia’s affect over high sports activities our bodies. It additionally highlighted the lack of worldwide sports activities to implement guidelines on doping and to punish athletes and international locations in a well timed method.
Critics have for years accused the I.O.C. of taking a mushy method on Russia by issuing tough-sounding sanctions that also allowed Russian athletes and groups to participate in competitions just like the Olympics. Others famous that Russia’s antidoping company was itself banned when it carried out the preliminary investigation into Valieva’s optimistic take a look at.
“It’s unimaginable that a young woman, Valieva, is thrown under the bus with a four-year sanction, but Russia is allowed to keep Olympic glory with the bronze,” Travis Tygart, the chief government of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, mentioned. “It reeks of political favoritism, and there is lots of explaining to do, as athletes deserve answers.”
Now, moderately than a neat decision to a scandal that has already dragged on for 2 years, determine skating — and the Olympic motion — faces the prospect of latest questions on doping and its penalties, and new appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport that might take months, and even years, to resolve.
In revising the outcomes on Tuesday, the skating union mentioned that it had disqualified Valieva and dismissed all of the factors and outcomes she had posted in competitions that occurred after she had submitted a optimistic pattern to drug testers on Christmas Day in 2021. The most high-profile of these was the Beijing Olympics weeks later, and the group occasion that occurred early within the Games.
Her disqualification lifted the United States into first place, Japan into second and dropped Russia to 3rd.
But in a curious little bit of math, the I.S.U. adjusted solely the ultimate factors totals for every group, and didn’t reallocate the 20 factors Valieva relinquished to the opposite girls’s opponents. Without the 2 further factors it believed it ought to have acquired from improved finishes within the girls’s quick and lengthy applications, Canada was left in fourth place — a single level behind Russia’s adjusted whole.
Canada’s skating federation mentioned it was “extremely disappointed” and that it will “consider all options to appeal this decision.” It cited a provision buried deep in skating’s guidelines that claims opponents “who initially placed lower than the disqualified Competitor(s) will move up accordingly in their placement(s).”
The Russian Olympic committee, in the meantime, mentioned it was already getting ready paperwork to attraction any reallocation of the group medals. In a earlier assertion on Monday, it had forged doubt on the “objectivity and impartiality” of the court docket that had banned Valieva, and like Canada pointed to skating’s rule ebook to fortify its place.
According to these guidelines, Russia mentioned, “the results of team competitions at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games do not depend on the outcome of the consideration of the individual case of Kamila Valieva, and the awards won by our team in Beijing cannot be legally subject to review.”
Tuesday’s announcement additionally stripped Valieva of any outcomes she achieved within the interval during which she was ineligible, together with not solely the group occasion but in addition her fourth-place end within the singles occasion in Beijing and her victory within the 2022 European championships.
Her four-year ban will finish in December 2025, simply in time to permit her to compete within the subsequent Olympics, in February 2026 in Italy.
A Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, on Monday ridiculed Valieva’s ban as a “politicized decision.” On Tuesday, he broadened his criticisms, suggesting that any end result that took the gold away from Russia was unacceptable.
“We don’t agree with these decisions, neither by the court nor by the federation,” he mentioned. “We don’t accept them.”
He added: “Upon their return from China, from the Olympics, these athletes were honored as Olympic champions. We are convinced that for us they will always remain Olympic champions. No matter what decisions were made in this regard, even unfair ones.”
The I.S.U., the skating governing physique, mentioned Tuesday that it will coordinate with the International Olympic Committee on the following steps in implementing its determination — basically the long-delayed awarding of the medals from the group competitors to the athletes who earned them.
The medals themselves stay in limbo. Unclear on the time about who had really received what, the I.O.C. took the unprecedented step of retaining possession of the group golds, silvers and bronzes that have been to be awarded in Beijing. It was the primary time in Olympic historical past that medals weren’t awarded in a accomplished occasion.
Ivan Nechepurenko and Juliet Macur contributed reporting.
Source: www.nytimes.com