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Greater than two days after the staff determine skating occasion ended with Russia successful, Olympics officers nonetheless haven’t handed out the medals as they examine a “authorized subject” that has generated questions within the sport.
The award ceremony was speculated to happen Tuesday night time in Beijing, with the American staff to obtain silver medals and Japan bronze, however simply because the groups ready to move to a plaza for the occasion they have been advised to show again.
Since then, Olympics officers have declined to elaborate on what’s inflicting the delay.
“Clearly we ask for and hope for the endurance and understanding of all of the athletes concerned right here,” Mark Adams, a spokesman for the I.O.C., stated at a information convention on Thursday in Beijing. “However it’s a authorized case, and I’m sure by this authorized case, and I’m unable to say something extra.”
Adams was requested about studies within the Russian information media that the difficulty concerned whether or not an athlete on the Russian staff had examined constructive for a banned substance, however would solely say, “I’ve seen the studies, however I can not touch upon them.”
Adams had stated on Wednesday that there can be extra data imminently, however none got here on Thursday morning. He had stated that Olympic officers have been consulting with legal professionals and the Worldwide Skating Union, the game’s world governing physique, to resolve the matter.
There was no extra readability on the state of affairs on the determine skating venue, the place the lads’s singles competitors was going down Thursday morning. Russian skaters there declined to reply questions on the matter.
Russia gained the staff occasion Monday behind a breakout efficiency by its 15-year-old star, Kamila Valieva.
The staff occasion is a mixed-gender competitors that made its debut on the 2014 Video games in Sochi, Russia. A Russian staff gained that 12 months after which claimed the silver medal behind Canada 4 years later in Pyeongchang, South Korea. America gained the bronze medal in each earlier editions.
This 12 months, the American staff, led by the three-time world champion Nathan Chen, completed second behind the Russian staff in the very best end within the occasion for the U.S.
Adams stated on the information convention that the I.O.C. typically was not answerable for drug testing and any punishments, noting that these obligations fell to organizations just like the Worldwide Testing Company and the Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport.
However he was imprecise on who was trying on the present case.
“Even when I touch upon who’s dealing with the matter, it tells you what sort of matter it’s, so I’m not going to,” he stated.
He took the identical stance when requested whether or not any potential doping case involving Russia would drive the I.O.C. to re-evaluate a call to permit the nation’s athletes to compete on the Video games below the moniker “Russian Olympic Committee.” The nation was formally banned from the Video games as a part of the fallout of a state-sponsored doping scheme.
“Various hypothesis in that query,” he stated.
The staff occasion is contested over a number of days. In it, every nation is represented by males’s and girls’s singles skaters, a pairs staff and a set of ice dancers. The athletes compete in a number of rounds of performances, and the scores are mixed to crown a winner.
The occasion can showcase the breadth of a staff’s skating expertise, however staff occasions additionally include dangers. Germany and Ukraine failed to attain factors in parts of this 12 months’s competitors after dropping athletes to constructive coronavirus exams, ending their slim medal hopes.
However the disqualification of any athlete from a medal-winning staff — an everyday prevalence in other Olympic sports — imply the lack of that athlete’s factors. That would alter the ultimate standings.
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