Golden day in Paris as 2022 Olympic champion US figure skaters finally get their medals

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FILE - Madison Chock and Evan Bates, of the United States, reacts after the team ice dance program during the figure skating competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Monday, Feb. 7, 2022, in Beijing.The United States figure skating team was formally confirmed as the 2022 Beijing Olympics champion by a sports court ruling. It opens the way to the skaters getting their medals at a presentation ceremony at the Paris Summer Games. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko, File)

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FILE - Kamila Valieva, of the Russian Olympic Committee, reacts after competing in the women’s free skate program during the figure skating competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022, in Beijing.The United States figure skating team was formally confirmed as the 2022 Beijing Olympics champion by a sports court ruling. It opens the way to the skaters getting their medals at a presentation ceremony at the Paris Summer Games. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)

By GRAHAM DUNBAR

PARIS (AP) — A touch of winter came to the Summer Games on Wednesday when the United States figure skating team finally got its gold medals as 2022 Olympic champions.

The special medal ceremony allowed the nine Americans to parade on a runway in the bright Paris sunshine, gaze at the Eiffel Tower and bask in warm cheers from the fans packed into the stands at Champions Park.

Exactly 2 1/2 years after the figure skating team event ended at the Beijing Olympics — and the doping saga of the winning Russian team started — the Americans got the medals that weren’t awarded at the time.

“I think it absolutely was worth the wait. Definitely,” said Karen Chen, wearing the first gold medal of her career around her neck.

All nine American skaters came to Paris, including Evan Bates, Nathan Chen, Madison Chock, Zachary Donohue, Brandon Frazier, Madison Hubbell, Alexa Knierim and Vincent Zhou. Seven of the eight members of the Japan team came to get their silver medals — an upgrade from their third-place result in Beijing.

The athletes were honored with a rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” not the Tchaikovsky piano piece that would have been played for the Russians in Beijing. The ceremony in France was watched by family, friends and fans. Not in a near-empty indoor ice arena in China during an Olympics staged through a COVID-19 lockdown.

“It is very memorable for all of us to be here and to get our medals,” Karen Chen said, “to just see the crowds, see everything and embrace it all.”

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Knierim, who skated with Frazier in pairs, had her fingernails painted golden.

“I thought it was perfect for the occasion,” she said of a ceremony confirmed only two weeks ago.

A Russian appeal trying to win back the Olympic team title was dismissed at the Court of Arbitration for Sport just before the Paris Games opened. The title had been stripped in January when a different CAS panel disqualified Russian teenager Kamila Valieva for doping with a banned heart medication. She also was banned for four years.

No Russian skaters are getting medals in the French capital, although their third-place finish was confirmed during the Paris Olympics in yet another CAS ruling. The Russian Olympic Committee has been formally suspended from the games, but 15 individuals are competing as neutral athletes after vetting.

Canada’s skaters lost their appeal last Friday to have their points tally upgraded from fourth place by the International Skating Union.

“My heart goes out to them,” said Zhou, one of the new Olympic champions.

The unusual setting for a Winter Games medal ceremony had more unusual features: no podium, no bronze medalists and no flagpoles. An American flag was shown on a big screen.

Still, Bates said, Paris had been spoken of as “the dream scenario” to get medals when the U.S. left Beijing without any. It had been his fourth Olympics and it is his first medal.

“I don’t know what it feels like (to get a medal at the Winter Games) but this feels pretty good,” said Bates, who skated ice dance with Chock.

The longtime on-ice partners got married in June.

“We grew up dreaming of this — but not in 90-degree weather,” Bates said in the shade, before Chock quipped: “We’re not built for this heat.”

Theirs was the first of several Olympic results amended by doping cases that will have the rightful medals presented at Champions Park. On Friday, 10 athletes are set to be presented with their upgraded medals, including two American champions from the 2012 London Olympics who originally got silver medals behind Russians later shown to be doped.

Lashinda Demus will be get her gold medal as the Olympic champion in the women’s 400-meter hurdles and Erik Kynard in men’s high jump.

“Today is a victory for clean athletes everywhere,” Chock said. “Some athletes have to wait much longer than 2 1/2 years.”

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

Olympic Hightlights

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FILE - South Africa’s Jacques Freitag competes in the men’s high jump of the 2004 Olympic Games, in the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Friday Aug. 20, 2004. Local media is reporting that South African police have discovered the body of former high jump world champion Jacques Freitag after he went missing last month. The reports said the 42-year-old, who won the 2003 world title in Paris and competed at the 2004 Olympics, had been shot. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)

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FILE - Ilona Maher of USA is tackled by Sharni Williams of Australia in a semifinal of the Rugby World Cup 7’s championship held in Cape Town, South Africa, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022. The main task for Maher, the breakout social media star on TikTok at the Tokyo Olympics, is winning a medal in Paris. (AP Photo/Halden Krog, File)

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FILE - Jacques Freitag of South Africa waves his national flag after he won the Men’s high jump event at the World Athletics Championships, at the Stade de France in Saint Denis, north of Paris, Monday, Aug. 25, 2003. Local media is reporting that South African police have discovered the body of former high jump world champion Jacques Freitag after he went missing last month. The reports said the 42-year-old, who won the 2003 world title in Paris and competed at the 2004 Olympics, had been shot. (AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle, File)

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Sammy Sullivan of USA in action during HSBC rugby sevens series in Singapore, on May 4, 2024. The anthem played as Army officer Sammy Sullivan stood to attention and saluted beside her U.S. rugby teammates before a gold-medal game in Hong Kong against Olympic champion New Zealand. No prizes for guessing where her mind may have drifted to: Paris in July. (AP Photo/Suhaimi Abdullah)

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USA Water Polo Women’s Senior National Team attacker Ryann Neushul, left, trains at Long Beach City College Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024, in Long Beach, Calif. Following in the footsteps of two older sisters who won gold with the U.S. women’s water polo team, Ryann Neushul is making her Olympic debut in Paris this summer. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

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Iranian wrestler Iman Mahdavi, 28, practices at the Lotta Club Seggiano gym, in Pioltello , northern Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

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FILE - Steven van de Velde of the Netherlands competes during the CEV Beach Volley Nations Cup Vienna 2022 men’s semifinal game against Austria at the Red Bull Beach Arena in Vienna, Austria, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2022. Van de Velde, convicted and imprisoned eight years ago for raping an underage girl in England has qualified for the Paris Olympics. (AP Photo/Florian Schroetter, File)