Every on occasion, Nathan Chen and the remainder of the American figure skaters who completed second within the crew occasion on the Beijing Olympics will get on a bunch chat and catch up on all the pieces taking place of their lives.
Things that are not taking place, too, like a medal ceremony for the Winter Games.
Eight months after ending behind the Russians, the U.S. crew has but to obtain its medals and even know whether or not they are going to be silver or gold. The Russian Anti-Doping Agency solely lately accomplished its painfully sluggish investigation into Kamila Valieva, the now-16-year-old wunderkind whose constructive doping check that surfaced throughout the opening week of the Olympics led to its greatest scandal in years.
The U.S. crew may then be elevated to gold, Japan to silver and the fourth-place Canadians to the bronze medal.
WATCH | Latest on Russian figure skating scandal:
Even although Russian skaters are still banned from competing in ISU occasions because of the conflict, there are still loads of updates across the nationwide crew.
RUSADA didn’t reveal the outcomes of its investigation, although it did say the following step can be to carry disciplinary hearings in September or early October. That timeframe has come and gone with none updates.
“That’s in all probability the toughest half, having no information of the scenario,” Chen, who additionally received particular person gold in Beijing, informed The Associated Press. “We get updates and it is all the time, ‘We don’t know what is going on on.’ That’s tremendous annoying.”
That in all probability will not occur any time quickly, although. If Valieva was discovered to have violated doping guidelines, she would possible enchantment to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. And if she’s cleared, it will be the World Anti-Doping Agency or International Skating Union that presumably would enchantment to the best court docket in worldwide sport.
Sarah Hirshland, the CEO of the USOPC, referred to as the delay within the awarding of medals “an outrageous scenario.”
“I’d prefer to inform you that I’m much less mad or much less annoyed,” Hirshland mentioned lately. “Our No. 1 precedence is to guarantee that our Team USA athletes, who’re sitting with out their medals, know that we have not forgotten them.”
It’s a fancy case, made much more so due to Valieva’s protected standing as a consequence of her age. But if she was discovered to have doped and the choice is upheld by appeals, the whole Russian crew may very well be stripped of gold; Valieva had the best scores in each the brief program and free skate, giving her crew the utmost factors within the occasion.
WATCH | Valieva misses particular person podium:
Kamila Valieva misses the Olympic podium, opening it up for her teammates Anna Shcherbakova taking gold and Alexandra Trusova taking silver with an unimaginable 5 quads in her free. Kaori Sakamoto took bronze. Presented by Ozempic.
“It’s all the time on our thoughts,” mentioned Madison Chock, who together with associate Evan Bates carried out their free dance within the crew occasion. “It is what it’s. It’s not one thing inside our management for the time being. We simply take these little bits of reports that we hear and soak up them and allow them to be.”
Chen is taking the yr off, although. So are Olympic teammates Karen Chen and Vincent Zhou, whereas longtime ice dancers Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue headed into retirement after the Winter Games.
They might need slightly extra time to ponder the destiny of their Olympic crew medals.
“I’m glad I’ve a extremely superior crew going by this collectively,” Nathan Chen mentioned. “We have one another’s backs.”