COLORADO SPRINGS, CO (KNWA) – Hours after announcing the disqualification of Russian figure skater Kamila Valiyeva and upgrading the U.S. figure skaters to gold medals for the 2022 Olympic team, the USOPC held a teleconference with USOPC Committee CEO Sarah Hirshland, CEO of U.S. Figure Skating Tracy Marek and two members of the U.S. Figure Skating team, Evan Bates and Madison Chock.
“As you can imagine it’s a very exciting moment in time for Team USA, but more importantly for the integrity of the sport. It’s a really important moment for all of us,” Hirschland said in her opening statement.
This the first U.S. figure skating team gold medal in the history of the games. The teleconference appeared to leave team members filled with hope, excitement and fulfillment after many months of uncertainty.
“Amazing. Quite frankly it’s a feeling I’ve always dreamed of and one that I can’t believe is here,” said U.S. team member Madison Chock. “I’m still wrapping my head around the reality of everything and it’s been a happy 24 hours of news for us.”
“This experience [has] brought us closer together,” added Evan Bates. “We are the only two still competing. The communication with the rest of the team over the last 24 hours has been incredibly celebratory. I hope this team will be remembered for how we handled this situation off the ice as well as the performances we did on the ice.”
They also felt the decision by the IOC was not only a win for the United State but also a win for clean sport.
“This is a landmark case, this is a monumental case. This is where 20 clean athletes left the games without a medal they won cleanly, and yesterday the findings brought justice to the clean sport movement,” Bates said. “This is a victory for clean sport. We feel very grateful that this case has had due process and has reached this finding.”
When asked if there was any concern over the possibility of an appeal, Hirshland said, “the short answer is there is no scenario where Team USA is not gold medalists and we are focused on getting the medals to Team USA.”
In getting those medals to Team USA, they hope they can do it in a celebratory way. They do not have to have a medal ceremony with all the other winners, which gives them flexibility to decide how they want to go about it.
Chock expressed how the team would like it to be done: “We would love to have a true Olympic medal ceremony, so that would be a ceremony at the Paris games this summer. To be there with our family and to celebrate and be around the Olympic spirit and moment. That would be our dream scenario.”
When asked if that was possible, Hirshland said “we are putting the champagne on ice.”
