Canadians, Russians file appeals on re-ranking of figure skating event

The dispute over the final standings of the figure skating team event at the 2022 Winter Olympics rumbles on, with Canada and Russia filing cases with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

On Monday, CAS announced that multiple appeals have been filed in response to the way the International Skating Union (ISU) re-ordered the results of the team event in Beijing after removing the results of Kamila Valieva, a member of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) who has been handed a drug ban, last month.

The Canadians are appealing to move up from fourth place to bronze, while the Russians are claiming its ROC team should be moved back up into gold medal position after dropping to bronze.

Originally, when the Olympic event was held in 2022, the ROC won gold in the event, with the US winning silver and Japan earning bronze.

However, none of the athletes received their medals in Beijing after it emerged that the then-15-year-old Valieva had tested positive for trimetazidine, a heart medication which can boost endurance.

The positive test result came from a sample collected during the Russian national championships, which were held prior to the Winter Olympics.

Almost two years later, on January 29, CAS announced that Valieva was banned from competing for four years for an anti-doping rule violation, with the start date retroactive to December 25, 2021.

The following day, on January 30, the ISU announced the re-ordering of the teams in the event following Valieva’s disqualification, with the US, Japan and ROC winning the Olympic medals in the event, in that order – dropping the ROC from gold to bronze. Canada remained in fourth, one point behind the ROC.

Canada disputes the method the ISU used to re-rank the teams, saying it should now be ahead of the ROC, while the ISU has since said that rules were implemented correctly.

CAS announced on Monday that the arbitration procedures following the Russian and Canadian appeals have just commenced, adding that there is no indication of when a potential hearing might take place.