They may have winter in their bones, but a group of Olympic figure skaters got a taste of summertime when they finally got their gold medals at the 2024 Paris Games, more than two years after becoming champions.
All nine U.S. figure skating team members from the 2022 Beijing Olympics traveled to Paris to participate in a special medal ceremony Wednesday in which they were awarded the medals they'd been waiting for ever since a doping scandal rocked the results.
The team — composed of Nathan Chen, Vincent Zhou, Karen Chen, Alexa Knierim, Brandon Frazier, Madison Chock, Evan Bates, Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue — had initially finished second in the figure skating team event at the 2022 Games after Russia. But the team was elevated to gold in January after Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva tested positive for a banned heart medication.
Lawyers for Valieva had argued her grandfather's heart medication may have contaminated food the skater had eaten, but the Court of Arbitration rejected the appeal and banned her for four years last month.
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Russia now holds third place in the competition — a decision the Court made during the Paris Olympics — while Japan has been upgraded to second. Canada's appeal to be awarded bronze instead of fourth place was denied last week.
After the appeal decision last month, the International Olympic Committee said it was glad athletes and teams could still have an opportunity to receive medals after they "unfortunately had to wait for a very long time" due to the legal case. And U.S. athletes said they were happy to have a true ceremony.
"I think it absolutely was worth the wait. Definitely," Chen said, per The Associated Press. "It is very memorable for all of us to be here and to get our medals... to just see the crowds, see everything and embrace it all."
Seven of Japan's eight figure skating team members came to the ceremony Wednesday to receive their silver medals, though no Russian skaters were in attendance.