For athletes, every ounce of sweat and sacrifice is validated on the podium, where medals symbolize their ultimate achievements. The Olympics, the grandest stage of all, magnifies this glory. Yet, sometimes, an unforeseen twist can make this triumph even sweeter. The IOC’s decision to bar several Russian athletes from the Paris Olympics has already set the stage for dramatic shifts. Now, a recent ruling is poised to bestow an unexpected boon upon Team USA’s figure skating team.

In the world of sports, it’s not unusual for medals to be reassigned years later due to an opponent’s belatedly revealed infractions. As Team USA looks ahead to the 2026 Winter Olympics, the Paris Summer Games are shaping up to deliver some unexpected and thrilling news.

Why are 2022 Winter Games gold medals being awarded in Paris?

According to a post on X by Christine Brennan hours ago, the Japanese and US figure skaters will be adorned with new medals in Paris on August 7. “The IOC just announced that the medal ceremony for the US and Japanese figure skaters will be held here in Paris at 5 pm August 7. It will be exactly 2 1/2 years to the day from the final day of competition in the team event — Feb. 7, 2022 to August 7, 2024.,” informs the post.

The American skaters won silver at the last Winter Olympics in Beijing, while the Japanese squad won bronze. While Russia was the winner of the event, the IOC and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) recently announced their decision to alter the result from two and a half years ago because of the winners’ positive drug test. According to the IOC’s statement, the ruling “comes just in time to still be able to make the medal allocation for gold and silver possible during the Olympic Games Paris 2024“.

The news comes as a welcome one for American skaters like Nathan Chen, who despite not having anything to do in Paris can still make a trip to the City of Love to add another medal to their collections. But what exactly happened in the Chinese capital that is making the figure skating community shake all these years later?

What happened at the Beijing Olympics 2022?

In 2022, 15-year-old Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva tested positive for trimetazidine (TMZ) six weeks before the team competition in Beijing. She was still cleared by the CAS to compete in the event, but it was made clear that she would not be receiving any medal despite whatever scores she posted on the board. It was ruled by a panel of judges that Valieva did “not need to be provisionally suspended ahead of a full investigation.” The ruling came in light of the fact that minor Olympians are considered “protected person (s)” by protocol, and therefore the judges sought to address her situation with compassion. “The panel considered that preventing the athlete to compete at the Olympic Games would cause her irreparable harm in the circumstances,” said CAS’s Director General Matthieu Reeb in 2022.

As a result, it was decided that the medal ceremony for the 2022 Winter Olympics figure skating event would be postponed until the investigations were concluded. Now, with the investigation reaching its conclusion, a significant announcement was made in January: Kamila would receive a four-year ban starting from December 2021. This ruling not only strips the Russian skaters of their gold medals but also crowns Team USA as the new gold medalists for the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, with Japan stepping up to claim silver.

The misfortune that befell the figure skaters of this country was finally made right on August 7. With the iconic Eiffel Tower as a witness, the American stars received the gold medals that they had been waiting for all this time. Naturally, as the post by NBC Olympics & Paralympics shows, it was all smiles for the skaters as their efforts from Beijing got the recognition it deserved.

This unexpected twist reshapes the narrative of the 2022 Winter Games and propels Team USA into the spotlight. How do you think this newfound glory will fuel Team USA’s quest for success in Paris? Share your thoughts in the comments!