It took some 30 months, but Japan's figure skaters in the team event at the 2022 Beijing Olympics finally received their silver medals from the International Olympic Committee on Wednesday, August 7, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
On a beautiful sunny day, seven Japanese skaters (Yuma Kagiyama, Kaori Sakamoto and Wakaba Higuchi in singles, pairs Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, and ice dancers Misato Komatsubara and Tim Koleto) stepped up to the podium and were awarded their medals in front of a huge crowd.
Two-time world champion Shoma Uno, the men's bronze medalist in singles in Beijing, did not attend the ceremony due to a previous commitment to skate in a show in Champery, Switzerland, this week. With the silver medal, Uno officially became Japan's most decorated Olympic figure skater ever with three medals.
"We've been longing for this day for two and a half years," Sakamoto, the women's singles bronze medalist in Beijing, was quoted as saying by Kyodo News. "I'm really happy the medals have finally arrived at the hands of my teammates."
Kagiyama, the silver medalist in singles in Beijing, said, "It feels as if the curtain has finally been drawn on our Beijing Games."
The American skaters, led by singles gold medalist Nathan Chen, were also awarded their gold medals at the ceremony.
"We all wished to be able to celebrate this medal together as a team, so it was really great that we were all able to come here and share this moment together," Chen commented.
Figure Skaters Forced to Wait to Receive Medals Due to Doping Scandal and Appeals Process
The long delay was the result of the disqualification of Russian skater Kamila Valieva for a pre-Olympic doping violation. Russia had won the team event, but Valieva's results were ultimately nullified.
Russia protested the ruling and ultimately appealed it to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which upheld the ban after a lengthy process.
In January 2024, the International Skating Union ruled that the United States, which finished second in the team event, was the rightful winner and would be upgraded to the gold medal, with Japan moved up from third to second place and the silver medal.
In the end, the ISU downgraded Russia to third place and the bronze medal. Canada, which came in fourth, filed an appeal with the CAS after not being moved up to the bronze, but saw it denied.
The CAS gave Valieva a four-year suspension, retroactive to December 2021, for the doping violation.
The Russians were not allowed to attend Wednesday's ceremony due to the nation's ongoing ban from the Olympics over the war in Ukraine.
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Author: Jack Gallagher
The author is a veteran sports journalist and one of the world's foremost figure skating experts. Find articles and podcasts by Jack on his author page, and find him on X (formerly Twitter) @sportsjapan.
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