Skate Canada officials have announced a formal appeal of the International Skating Union’s (ISU) decision to award Russia the bronze medal in the figure skating team event at the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games, despite the fact that a member of the Russian delegation was sanctioned for doping.
In a news release issued Friday, Skate Canada said it was filing the appeal along with the Canadian Olympic Committee and the athletes of the 2022 Canadian figure skating team, which finished fourth in the event.
The Russian team won gold in Beijing before it was revealed that skater Kamila Valieva had tested positive for a banned heart drug in a sample taken before the Games. On January 29, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that Valieva would be disqualified from the Games.
Following the CAS decision, the IPU gave the gold to the United States and the silver to Japan. But it awarded bronze to Russia rather than moving Canada from fourth to third place.
The ISU released an amended competition ranking that gave Russia one point ahead of Canada and stripped Valieva of the maximum 10 points for each of her two events, but did not add any additional points to the other teams that were below it.
Skate Canada officials said Friday they disagree with the ISU’s decision and believe an independent review would clarify the matter.
“Our call comes from our commitment to fairness, transparency and integrity in sport,” the governing body said.
The members of the Canadian team in Beijing were Maddie Schizas, Piper Gilles, Paul Poirier, Kirsten Moore-Towers, Michael Marinaro, Eric Radford, Vanessa James and Roman Sadovsky, a last-minute replacement for Keegan Messing.