By Scott Mammoser, Team FSO contributing writer
Photos courtesy of Michael Reaves/Getty Images, Vincent Zhou, Madison Chock and Evan Bates, Kyodo News via Getty Images
The U.S. group of Evan Bates, Karen Chen, Nathan Chen, Madison Chock, Zachary Donohue, Brandon Frazier, Madison Hubbell, Alexa Knierim, and Vincent Zhou were given their gold medals, while the Japanese team received their silver medals in an elaborate reallocation ceremony Wednesday at Champions Park at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Both the U.S. and Japanese teams were not able to receive their medals in Beijing after news was revealed that Russian skater Kamila Valieva, who participated in both segments of the team event at the Beijing 2022 Olympics, had tested positive for the banned substance trimetazadine at a competition in December 2021. After a series of delays with the Russian Anti-Doping Agency, which was originally charged with the Valieva investigation, and then delays with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) hearings in the fall of 2023, it wasn’t until January 2024 that CAS announced its decision that it had banned Valieva from international competition for four years and her results since the date of the test were disqualified. That included her individual results in the team event where the Russian Olympic Committee had earned the gold medal. The next day, the International Skating Union (ISU) announced that the U.S., who had originally won silver would receive the gold medal and Japan would take the silver. The Russian Olympic Committee would drop down to the bronze medal position. After dismissing three appeals from the Russian Skating Federation, the Russian Olympic Committee and the Russian team event athletes on July 25, an August 7 medal ceremony for Teams USA and Japan was planned.
Zhou, who has one and half years left until graduating from Brown University, left his summer internship at a financial services company in New York a week early to receive his gold medal.
“It’s surreal,” Zhou said. “I am almost gotten used to the feeling of not knowing if I would get it or not, and now, finally getting it, it’s like, ‘Wait a moment, What?’ I think it’s eye-opening for a lot of people. You had the huge doping scandal after the 2014 Sochi Olympics, but this 2022 Olympic scandal should be a message that it’s still going on and keep your eyes open. The fight for clean sport is not over, and this gold medal is a step in the right direction.”
Since the wait was so extended, many of the athletes’ lives in 2024 have little resemblance to February 2022. Ice dancers Hubbell and Donohue retired after an 11-year partnership. Winners of the ice dance bronze in Beijing, the 2022 Montpellier World Championships were their final event, where they took silver.
“We’re ending a chapter,” Hubbell said. “We walked away from the sport a couple years ago, and we were waiting for this moment to punctuate our careers. The goal of having a completely clean sport is a work in progress, but we are making a big stride towards holding that standard. In the past, maybe you got your medal in the mail. To make sure they are honoring the athletes who spent their lifetimes in the sport and maybe had to wait for the results to change is a step in the right direction.”
Hubbell married retired Spanish ice dancer Adrian Diaz one year after the Beijing Games, and they had a baby girl, Chloe Diaz-Hubbell, earlier this year. Donohue married retired Australian ice dancer Chantelle Kerry late in 2022.
“We had no expectations,” Donohue said of the ceremony, “But I feel like, you feel the energy, you feel the intention, and that is what matters the most. We’re being celebrated with intention, and the most important thing is a great result for clean sport. I think that and being able to go home with a gold medal around our neck is the most incredible feeling.”
While Hubbell and Donohue married fellow ice dancers, Chock and Bates found love with once another and were wed in June at Hawaii. They are planning on competing this season, with the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympics on the horizon.
“We are immeasurably grateful for this moment,” Bates said of the ceremony. “Our team has been very resilient and strong throughout the wait, and we feel grateful to have a real Olympic ceremony with the national anthem and our entire team here with family and friends all in the audience. It could not have turned out better.”
Chock and Bates were fourth in the ice dance event at Beijing, but since won World titles in 2023 and 2024. They are also the three-time defending U.S. champions.
“It really symbolizes the value of clean sport,” Chock added. “I think this is a win for clean athletes everywhere to show that there is justice and due process is real and helpful, and it means a lot to us that the people at CAS, the ISU, USOPC (U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee), and IOC (International Olympic Committee) took the time to make sure justice was served, and in this case, we could not have been more grateful that the decision was made. To be here in Paris, we could not have imagined a better setting. To get a Winter Olympic medal at the Summer Olympics is something I never would have dreamed of.”
Karen Chen is entering senior year at Cornell University and looking forward to physical therapy school after graduation. Though she is not competing at the international level, Chen is skating with the Cornell Skating Club and is working to build that program. She placed 15th in the women’s singles in Beijing and was also 11th at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics.
“It was such an incredible experience for all of us,” Karen Chen noted, “and I just feel really thankful to have this moment. I am a pretty patient person, so I just waited (the two years). I knew that no matter the results, we would be able to have these results as a team, and that is what really matters. I was willing to wait as long as I needed to.”
The team event was the second Olympic gold medal for Nathan Chen. Now 25, he broke a world record in the short program at Beijing and then became the seventh American man to capture the Olympic singles title.
“Everyone was very excited,” Chen expressed. “At the end of the day, I think, our pride mostly aligns in the fact that we did the best we could on the ice.”
Chen graduated from Yale University this spring and will begin a post-grad program this fall.
The silver medal-winning Japanese team consisted of Shoma Uno, Yuma Kagiyama, Wakaba Higuchi, Kaori Sakamoto, Riku Miura, Ryuichi Kihara, Misato Komatsubara, and Tim Koleto. All were there for the medal ceremony, except for Uno, who was unable to attend due to prior commitment.
“It’s been a long two and a half years,” Koleto said, “and a lot of discussions, and I am sure it was very difficult for the IOC and ISU to come to an agreement, so we are very excited to share this moment. To do it at the Summer Games at such a special place in front of the Eiffel Tower is truly special.”
Koleto, who was born in Montana and now a Japanese citizen, is married to his ice dance partner Komatsubara. They were 22nd in the ice dance competition at Beijing and competed last season, placing 18th at Worlds. Komatsubara announced her retirement from competitive skating.
“I was concentrating on my own career,” Komatsubara added, “and I tried to avoid thinking about it (the team event). I tried to think about what I can do for myself. Sometimes it was hard, but here finally, we can go back home with the medal.”
