Confusion reigns in Olympic figure skating world over bronze medalist

Confusion reigned in the Olympic world Tuesday morning over how the International Skating Union, the figure skating federation charged with re-ordering the 2022 Olympic team skating medals after Kamila Valieva’s suspension and disqualification, selected Russia as the new bronze medalist rather than Canada.

Several hours after USA TODAY Sports broke the news that the United States would officially win the gold medal in the 2022 Olympic team figure skating competition, the ISU sent out a release announcing that the U.S. was first, Japan second and Russia third. 

But the ISU’s choices were immediately questioned by Skate Canada, the national governing body for figure skating, citing Rule 353(4)(a) of the ISU’s technical rules, which are in place at the Olympics: “Disqualified competitors will lose their placements and be officially noted in the intermediate and final results as disqualified (DSQ). Competitors having finished the competition and who initially placed lower than the disqualified competitor(s) will move up accordingly in their placement(s).”

If all the other women in the 2022 Olympic team competition moved up one spot due to Valieva’s disqualification and received two more total points (one in the short program and one in the long program), Canada would have one more total point than Russia and would move into third place. 

There are questions still unanswered about whether this rule applies only to men’s and women’s singles, pairs and ice dance — figure skating’s four traditional disciplines — or also to the team competition, which is a relatively new event.

But U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart told USA TODAY Sports Tuesday in a text message: “The Team Event is made up of all the disciplines and there is no specific Team Event rule on this issue that we are aware of, so the discipline rule should apply.”

Tygart added, “It’s nonsensical for Valieva to get four years and Russia keep Olympic bronze. The fair and just outcome is for the specific discipline rules to apply and Canada get the bronze.”

Four emails sent to ISU spokespeople over the past six hours have gone unanswered. Emails sent to an International Olympic Committee spokesman Tuesday morning also have not been answered.

A chart was included in the ISU medal re-ordering release showing that Valieva had been disqualified from both the short and long programs, each of which she won, garnering 10 points each for a total of 20 points.

On February 7, 2022 in Beijing, Russia won the gold medal with 74 points, followed by the United States with 65 and Japan with 63. Canada was fourth with 53. 

So the ISU subtracted Valieva’s points from the team’s score, dropping Russia from its original, gold-medal-winning team total of 74 to its new total of 54. 

That’s all the ISU did. 

However, using the rule Skate Canada highlighted, every woman who finished below Valieva in the Beijing Olympic team event — which is every single one of them — would then move up a spot in both the short and long programs. Each spot is worth one more point than the previous spot, i.e., second place is worth 9, third is worth 8, and so on. 

What that means is that the women who skated in the short and long programs would receive two more points for their teams. So that would mean the updated team score for the United States would be 67; for Japan, 65; and for Canada, 55. 

Canada’s 55 points would then beat Russia’s 54. 

Skate Canada said it “is extremely disappointed with the International Skating Union’s (ISU) position on the long-awaited awarding of medals for the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games Figure Skating Team competition. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that in addition to a four-year ban from competition, the ban includes ‘the disqualification (of) all competitive results’ achieved by Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva since the positive test. The ISU in its recent decision is not applying Rule 353 … Skate Canada strongly disagrees with the ISU’s position on this matter and will consider all options to appeal this decision.”