Dope again? At the Olympics in Beijing, the awarding of Russian figure skaters was delayed

Russians Mark Kondratyuk, Kamila Valiyeva, Anastasia Mishina, Alexander Gallyamov, Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov, who won gold in the team event in figure skating at OI-22 in Beijing, could not get on the podium in time and receive Olympic medals.

According to Inside The Games, the awards ceremony for the winners and prize-winners of the team competition was supposed to take place on February 8. But it was postponed due to the need for legal consultations with the International Olympic Committee and the International Skating Union.

As noted by the Dozhd TV channel*, the problem concerns a sample that one of the Russian athletes passed before the start of the Olympic Games.

The Russian national team included single skaters Kondratyuk and Valieva, as well as pairs Mishina / Galliamov and Sinitsina / Katsalapov. They overtook rivals from the USA and Japan, who took second and third places in the competition.

Due to the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, based on the investigation of the doping scandal at the Sochi 2014 Games, the Russian team performs under the symbols of the Russian Olympic Committee. Russians are prohibited from using national symbols, the flag and the anthem as a punishment for doping. Despite the measures taken, doping scandals in Russian sports continue.

In January of this year, the Russian anti-doping agency RUSADA suspended figure skater Valeria Starygina for two years. She was caught on doping. She will not be able to compete starting January 18, 2022.

*Included by the Ministry of Justice in the register of media-foreign agents.