US figure skaters celebrate gold medal from Beijing Olympics with a touch of bittersweetness
The U.S. figure skating team from the Beijing Olympics will receive a gold medal now that Russian skater Kamila Valieva has been disqualified for doping
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Evan Bates sat on a table at the U.S. figure skating championships last weekend, feeling lousy despite having just won a fifth ice dance national title because of a flu bug that nearly kept him from performing with partner Madison Chock.
He felt a lot better — in a lot of ways — by Tuesday morning.
That's when Bates and Chock awoke to learn they were suddenly Olympic champions. The Court of Arbitration for Sport had ruled a day earlier that Kamilia Valieva of the winning Russian squad would be disqualified following a failed doping test taken ahead of the 2022 Beijing Games, presumably elevating the second-place Americans to first in the team event. But exactly how to allocate the medals was left in the hands of the IOC and the International Skating Union.
That decision, not without a bit of controversy of its own, was delivered about 24 hours later.
