Valieva verdict took nearly 2 years. International Skating Union thinks more waiting is OK
The International Skating Union knew exactly what was coming. The worldwide governing body for figure skating knew that someday it would actually have to govern figure skating.
It knew that no matter how long the Russians dithered and delayed, and no matter how long the Court of Arbitration for Sport took to hand down a verdict on Russian Olympic star Kamila Valieva, that if CAS found her guilty of doping and suspended her, the ISU would then have to act.
It would have to make a decision, a pretty big one, but also an entirely obvious one. It would have to follow CAS’s lead and disqualify Valieva’s results in the 2022 Olympic team figure skating competition, take first place away from Russia and give it to the United States with Japan moving up to second and, most likely, Canada from fourth to third.
Don’t take my word for it. Take the ISU’s. On Feb. 7, 2023, the one-year anniversary of the end of the team skating event in Beijing, a spokesperson told me: “Only the finalization of the case will enable the ISU to establish the definitive results of the figure skating team competition at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games…”
Once those decisions were made, the International Olympic Committee would then take over and decide how and when to actually give out the corresponding medals to the athletes who have been without them for nearly two years.
That’s what the ISU knew it had to do. It has known that for months, probably since the day after the team competition in February 2022, when the medal ceremony was canceled due to Valieva’s positive drug test and the results were thrown into disarray.
So, when the day everyone knew was coming did in fact finally arrive and a decision was needed, did the ISU act? Or did it force its medal-less athletes to wait some more?
Of course it chose the latter.
It was abundantly clear to anyone in contact with the ISU on Monday that the federation was not prepared to do its job when the CAS decision on Valieva was announced, even though the entire sports world knew three days in advance when D-day was going to be.
MORE: Russian skater Kamila Valieva banned four years over doping, ending 2022 Olympic drama
It took hours for their spokespeople to answer the simplest email, and when they did, they added nothing to the conversation, offering gibberish about “the protection of clean athletes and the fight against doping” without actually doing anything on this day of all days to protect clean athletes or fight against doping.
The federation’s final thought for the night? “The ISU will publish a full statement with regard to the implications of the CAS decision on January 30, 2024.”
Oh great, thanks. See you tomorrow. This is a scandal that has been only about tomorrows, 721 of them to be exact, from the day the competition ended to the day CAS threw the book at Valieva.
So everyone now waits some more. Think of those athletes from the U.S., Japan and Canada, robbed of one of the loveliest and simplest tasks performed in the Olympic world, the presentation of the medals to the athletes who won them at the Games. The ISU must have thought about them and said, what the heck, they can wait another day.
ISU officials should have been ready to announce the new results, the right results, immediately after the CAS decision. The ruling is two pages long and takes less than a minute to read. There might be a Valieva appeal, but the ISU also knows the arbitrators' ruling wasn’t rushed or forced. CAS has been studying this case since late September.
But no. The ISU couldn’t do it. In fact, it did the only thing international sports officials seem to know how to do to these athletes. It forced them to keep waiting.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Valieva verdict took nearly 2 years. Governing body waits another day.
