‘What a special moment’: US figure skating team finally receives Beijing 2022 gold medals in ceremony under the Eiffel Tower

CNN —

They say good things come to those that wait – and the wait has certainly been worth it for the USA’s figure skating team.

At the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, the US finished second behind the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) in the team event, with Japan coming third.

However, after Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva had a doping test come back positive for the performance-enhancing substance trimetazidine, no medals were awarded until the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) handed down a decision to disqualify Valieva of “all competitive results” achieved since her positive test.

CAS handed Valieva – who was only 15 at the time of the positive test – a four-year ban, which was accompanied by a re-ranking of medal positions in the team event where the ROC fell to third, with the US and Japan moving up to first and second respectively.

Team members Nathan Chen and Madison Hubbell told CNN Sport’s Coy Wire that the pain of being denied their moment on the podium in Beijing, where there were no fans or families due to the spread of the omicron variant of Covid, has now been replaced with joy.

Hubbell said that “missing out on the medal moment with our families and our friends” hurt the most back in 2022.

But instead of receiving their medals in front of empty stands, the team had their golds placed around their necks at a packed Champions Park in the Trocadéro Gardens, a stunning location at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

Loud chants of “USA, USA, USA” came from the sizeable contingent of Americans in the stands as the skaters were awarded their medals.

Japan was upgraded to silver and received its medals alongside the USA.

A huge roar then went up as they held their bouquets aloft and waved to the