The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) issued a retroactive four-year doping ban to Russian star figure skater Kamila Valieva on January 29, which could change the results of the Olympic event held in Beijing in 2022.

Valieva was on a team of skaters representing Russia who won provisionally over the U.S., although the medal ceremony was postponed until the adjudication of Valieva’s case. Now, the athletes who represented the U.S. in figure skating in Beijing are awaiting their moment to be recognized.

U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee CEO Sarah Hirshland recognized the global anticipation for these athletes.

“We now anticipate the day when we can wholeheartedly celebrate these athletes, along with their peers from around the world,” she said. “Their moment is approaching, and when it arrives, it will serve as a testament to the justice and recognition they truly deserve.”

Valieva, now 17, tested positive when she was 15. The international anti-doping rules indicate that athletes under the age of 16 may face smaller punishments than those who are 16 and over. However, the CAS noted that Russia’s anti-doping rules do not differentiate based on age, which allowed her disqualification to proceed.

The International Skating Union (ISU) also came out with a statement regarding the CAS ruling on Valieva. The retroactive ban began four years of ineligibility on December 25, 2021, disqualifying her team’s performance in the Beijing 2022 Winter Games.

U.S. Ski & Snowboard is investigating longtime Olympic coach Peter Foley as well as Olympic snowboard racer Hagen Kearney after allegations surfaced that the former took pictures of naked female athletes and the latter used racist language to antagonize a teammate.

Former snowboardcross rider and member of the 2010 Olympic team Callan Chythlook-Sifsof wrote on Instagram that, in addition to the photos, Foley had also made inappropriate comments, and Kearney repeatedly used the N-word to “intentionally get under my skin.” Chythlook-Sifsof hails from Alaska and identifies as Yupik and Inupiaq.

“I cannot watch another Olympic Games without saying this publicly,” she wrote.

The two were in China this week for the Olympics.

In a statement, U.S. Ski & Snowboard said that it “takes all allegations seriously. Peter Foley remains as U.S. Snowboardcross team head coach while all recent allegations are being investigated.”

Foley said he was surprised by the allegations.

“I vehemently deny the allegations,” Foley said. “I’m doing my best to concentrate on supporting the athletes at the Olympics.”

Kearney finished 17th in the men’s snowboardcross contest. He posted on Instagram that he faced expulsion after the episode and apologized soon after it happened.

“I did not have the same head on my shoulders back then as I do now and Callan was a huge part of me changing and growing as a human,” Kearney wrote on Instagram.

Two-time Beijing-gold-medal-winner Lindsey Jacobellis said she never had an issue with Foley.

“I can speak very highly of his character and he’s always been supporting me through everything that I’ve gone through,” she said.

The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee said in a statement: “We take all allegations of sexual misconduct seriously and follow protocols to ensure it is reported and managed properly.”

Such cases are investigated via U.S. Center for SafeSport, which opened in 2017 to handle abuse allegations inside U.S. sports.

Beijing Olympics gold medalist Eileen Gu has found herself in hot water with some fans after divulging a potentially illegal way to avoid internet censorship at the games.

“Why can you use Instagram and millions of Chinese people from mainland cannot,” an Instagram user asked on one of her posts. “That’s not fair, can you speak up for those millions of Chinese who don’t have internet freedom.”

“Anyone can download a vpn its literally free on the App Store,” Gu said, and added a thumbs-up emoji. A VPN, virtual private network, can be used to change one’s location—enabling the ability to eschew firewalls.

This advice was ill-received by fans, many of whom pointed out that unauthorized VPN use is illegal in China.

Since arriving at the games, the 18-year-old, born in San Francisco but competing as a freestyle skier for her mother’s native China, has posted on social media, which drew the ire and attention of many fans in China. Many social networking sites, if not all, are blocked as part of China’s Great Firewall—an attempt by the government to censor and control information.

Others claimed preferential treatment; in 2017, a University of Washington student was detained for months after using a VPN to log in to a school system to submit homework.

“No matter what I say, if people don’t have a good heart, they won’t believe me because they can’t empathize with people who do have a good heart,” Gu said. “So in that sense, I feel as though it’s a lot easier to block out the hate now. And also, they’re never going to know what it feels like to win an Olympic gold medal.”

Gu grew up in the Sea Cliff neighborhood and took ski lessons in Tahoe; she initially competed for the U.S. before petitioning for change of nation in 2019. Gu has declined to comment on her current U.S. citizenship status, as China does not recognize dual citizens.

Not even three months after becoming a U.S. citizen, Kaillie Humphries brought home a gold medal.

The monobob gold she won on Monday was her third overall (two-man in 2014 and 2010, when she was representing Canada).

Her 1.54-second margin of victory is the largest in an Olympic bobsled race in 42 years. She was given a U.S. flag as she exited her apparatus and, with a grin, she chanted “U-S-A! U-S-A!”

“This one feels more emotional than most,” Humphries said. “It just really hits the heartstrings a little bit to know that I had to fight so hard for something that I wanted, and I had the backing and the support and the nation stood behind me, and it worked.

“I get to bring home a gold medal for a country that believes in me and a team that really backed me over these last four years.”

The United States got a second medal, as Elana Meyers Taylor took silver; it’s her fourth Olympic medal and third silver. She has silvers as a driver in the two-man from 2018 and 2014, and a bronze as a brakeman in 2010.

“This is better than gold,” Meyers Taylor, who had a run-in with Covid, said. “This is definitely the most difficult medal I’ve ever earned. It’s definitely been the hardest journey to get here. So this is the most special, by far, and I am so excited to take it back to my son.”

Humphries asked for her release from Canada in 2019, alleging verbal and emotional abuse by Todd Hays, Canada’s bobsled coach. The case is ongoing. Hays has denied the allegations and is suing Humphries for defamation.

Humphries has lived in the U.S. since 2016 and married Travis Armbruster, a former U.S. bobsledder, in 2019. She’s represented the U.S. internationally since fall 2019, winning the world titles in two-man in 2020 and 2021, when she also won the inaugural monobob title.

“There were a couple of low points this summer, right after Tokyo and being so inspired by watching the Summer Games and having no idea if my citizenship was going to come in time,” Humphries said. “Just my husband and I, and basically me bawling my face off, not knowing and the uncertainty of, ‘Am I going to be able to go to a Games and have the opportunity to be able to compete?’

“It wasn’t my talent or my skill that was going to not allow me to be here. It was going to be whether I got my citizenship.”

The latest in the ongoing saga of Kamila Valieva and her pre-Olympics failed doping test includes her lawyers saying that the 15-year-old skater failed because of contamination from her grandfather’s medication.

Indeed, part of the Russian’s defense is “contamination which happened with a product her grandfather was taking.”

The argument was made at a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) hearing late Sunday night, during which judges eventually ruled Monday that she can compete in the women’s individual event despite testing positive for a banned heart medication.

The investigation will continue for months, though, and she faces potential medal-stripping. She helped the Russian team win gold last week and is the favorite in Tuesday’s women’s event.

Valieva will be investigated by the Russian anti-doping agency after the games. The ruling will likely be appealed even if it clears her.

Valieva’s lawyers “presented elements that brought some doubts about her guilt” during the CAS panel that allowed her to skate, including her status as a minor, the potential harm to her career, and the delay in informing Russia about the positive test.

Team USA bobsledder Aja Evans came out of retirement to compete in the Bejing Olympic Games.

The IOC has said that “in the interest of fairness to all athletes” there will be no medal ceremony if Russian teenager Kamila Valieva places in the top three in the women’s individual figure skating competition.

The organization added that it will “organize dignified medal ceremonies once the case of Ms. Valieva has been concluded.” She was cleared to compete in the event despite failing a pre-games drug test, and now she’s in line to attempt a second gold medal in Beijing.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) issued the ruling less than 12 hours after a meeting ended early Monday morning. It decided that the 15-year-old Valieva, the women’s individual gold favorite, does not need to be suspended ahead of a full investigation.

CAS ruled that way partly because she’s a minor or “protected person” and was subject to different rules than adults.

The panel also cited fundamental issues of fairness in its ruling: she tested clean in Beijing and that there were “serious issues of untimely notification” of her positive test.

“The panel considered that preventing the athlete to compete at the Olympics would cause her irreparable harm in the circumstances,” CAS director general Matthieu Reeb said.

The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) said it was “disappointed by the message this decision sends.”

“It is the collective responsibility of the entire Olympic community to protect the integrity of sports and to hold our athletes, coaches, and all involved to the highest of standards,” USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland said. “Athletes have the right to know they are competing on a level playing field. Unfortunately, today that right is being denied. This appears to be another chapter in the systemic and pervasive disregard for clean sports by Russia.

“We know this case is not yet closed, and we call on everyone in the Olympic Movement to continue to fight for clean sport on behalf of athletes around the world.”

Valieva and her teammates now have their sights set on the first podium sweep of women’s figure skating in Olympic history. The event starts with the short program on Tuesday and concludes Thursday with the free skate.

After the decision, Valieva skated in her practice time slot.

Valieva tested positive for the heart drug trimetazidine on December 25 at the Russian nationals, but the result didn’t come to light until a week ago—after she helped the ROC win the team gold.

Reasons for the six-week wait for a result from Sweden, where the lab is located, are unclear, though Russian officials have theorized that it was partly because of a January surge in the omicron variant.

The Russian anti-doping agency immediately suspended her, then lifted the ban a day later which put the medal ceremony in limbo. An appeal led to the meeting and ultimately this decision.

The ruling only addresses whether she can keep skating before her case is resolved; it doesn’t decide the fate of the one gold medal she has already won. That medal, and any additional medal she wins, could still be taken from her.

The World Anti-Doping Agency will have the right to appeal any ruling by RUSADA.

Jake Brown is ready to compete for Team USA’s biathlon team at the Beijing Olympic Games.

A member of the Jamaican bobsled team has high hopes for the Olympics—so high, in fact, that they have never been matched.

Indeed, Sheffield Hallam University student Ashley Watson is part of the four-man bobsled team competing in Beijing, and he thinks his team can record the nation’s highest-ever placing at a Winter Olympics.

It’s the first time in 24 years that a four-man crew will represent Jamaica—shadowing the legendary 1988 team that inspired the 1993 movie Cool Runnings.

The 1988 games in Calgary were Jamaica’s debut in bobsled. The team—Devon Harris, Dudley Stokes, Michael White and Nelson Stokes—crashed and carried their sled over the finish line but won the hearts of fans all over the globe. Watson, 28, wants to set records though.

Jamaica’s four-man bobsled team last qualified for the Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, in 1998, finishing 21st. The team’s best finish was 14th at Lillehammer in 1994.

“This would be a good benchmark to beat to become the best team in Jamaican history,” Watson said, “there is no point entering a competition without thinking you can get a medal.”

Watson, who just earned his master’s degree in physiotherapy, said he “didn’t feel too pressured” as the team—Matthew Wekpe, Nimroy Turgott and L/Cpl Shanwayne Stephens—trained hard.

“I am very excited to race, the track is very impressive and I think we can do well,” Watson said.

The four-man bobsled event begins on Saturday, February, 19.

Twenty-one-year-old American snowboarder Chloe Kim notched her second straight Olympic gold medal in the halfpipe at the 2022 Beijing Games on Thursday.

Kim scored 94 points to take the lead in the field of 12 on the first of her three runs—a lead to which no one caught up. That first run included a pair of 1080s, a switch 900, and a switch backside 540.

“Oh, my God. I had the worst practice of my life,” cameras caught her saying after her run.

On her second and third runs, Kim tried to go big with a 1260 but fell each time.

Spain’s Queralt Castellet came in second to win silver, and Japan’s Sena Tomita took the bronze.

“I was dealing with all sorts of emotions, self-doubt,” she said after the event. “But when I was getting ready to drop into my first run, I just reminded myself that it’s a brand-new run.”

“I am in a much better headspace, and I think I have a better idea of what to expect.”

At PyeongChang in 2018, Kim won gold medal in the halfpipe at her first Olympics. It was at those games that she made history by becoming the first woman to land back-to-back 1080s in the halfpipe. She was also the youngest female Olympic gold medalist (17) in snowboarding history.

Following the 2018 games, Kim said she took a break and attended Princeton University, which “gave me a good reset.”

“I feel like I’m in such a better place now mentally and physically, as well.

“Just being so grateful to be out here and represent the U.S. I’m just so honored to be here and just enjoying the moment.”

Target acquired!

A near-perfect performance head and shoulders above the competition earned American Nathan Chen his first Olympic Gold medal in the men’s single skating competition.

The favorite headed into Thursday’s event in Beijing, the 22-year-old Chen nailed his win with a long program filled to the gills with moves—quadruple flip, triple toe loop, a total of five quad jumps, including a quadruple lutz, each of which were nailed—that illustrate why he earned the nickname “quad king.”

In doing so, he became the first American since Evan Lysacek in 2010 to win gold in a men’s figure skating event. He’s also the seventh man to win gold for the United States in men’s singles skating.

“It means the world,” he said. “I’m just so happy … too many emotions to process. It’s a whirlwind right now. I had a blast out there.

“Of course, there are certainly many things I could have done better, but overall I was very happy I was able to do the program that I put down.”

Chen’s performance, set to songs such as Elton John’s “Rocket Man,” was met with loud cheers from other athletes and placed him in the lead with 218.63; that, combined with his short program score, gave him a total of 332.60.

Yuma Kagiyama, 18, came in at 310.05 points to garner the silver in his first Olympics, and 2018-silver-winner Shoma Uno took bronze with 293.

Japanese legend Yuzuru Hanyu fell attempting the fabled quadruple axel in his free skate and came in fourth.

The gold medal is a dream come true for Chen, who also noted that the games’ location, Beijing, holds special meaning; it’s the city where his parents met before they immigrated to the U.S.

“I know that they did everything that they could to give us—I’m the youngest of five—to give all of us…opportunities to pursue (our dreams), without having many resources themselves,” he said. “It certainly has not been easy for them.”

Chen added that while growing up in Salt Lake City he found “inspiration” in Asian-American figure skating star and two-time Olympic medalist Michelle Kwan.

“Having athletes that look like you certainly gives you the hope that you can do the same,” Chen said.

Team USA bobsledder Sylvia Hoffman is ready to compete at the Beijing Olympic Games. She believes that persistence is the main reason that she has made it this far.

After a fall in the first qualifying round, the most successful halfpipe rider in history rose to the occasion Wednesday and pulled off a do-or-die run—and now Shaun White is in the medal round at his fifth and final Olympics.

“I can’t tell you the relief I felt off that last hit,” White said. “It was just the thrill and excitement to be going to finals.”

White, 35, earned the finals trip after he eased up on “The Tomahawk”—a trick he invented more than a decade ago that includes a frontside takeoff and 1260-degree diagonal, off-axis angle.

“I was thinking a lot about that, like, how if the next run went terribly, I’d be standing here, talking to everyone over and over about how I’m still happy to be here, but it sucks,” White said. “I’m so thankful I’m not living that right now.”

He famously nailed it to cap the 2010 Vancouver Olympics on a “victory run” after his gold medal had already been secured.

He has no thoughts about any sort of victory run during Friday’s finals, though. It’ll be there that two-time silver medalist Ayumu Hirano and 2018 bronze medalist Scotty James are among those who will be looking for gold.

White is no stranger to pressure, as he won his third gold four years ago with a near-perfect run on the last day.

“I knew I could do it, and I put the run down, and I’m going to be ready to fight it out in finals as well,” he said.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced Wednesday that the medal ceremony for team figure skating would be delayed because of “legal consultation.”

The delay was reportedly due to a positive drug test of one member of Russia’s six-person team, though names have not been named.

Russian athletes are competing as Team Russian Olympic Committee as a consequence of a 2019 doping scandal.

The ceremony for the Russian-won event was first moved from Monday to Tuesday evening before its indefinite postponement.

“A situation arose at short notice that requires legal consultation,” IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said. “You can bet your bottom dollar we are doing everything that this situation can be resolved as soon as possible. I cannot give you any more details, but we will do our utmost.”

Also on Wednesday, Russian skaters Anastasia Mishina, Aleksandr Galliamov, Mark Kondratiuk, and 15-year-old star Kamila Valieva were reportedly absent from practice for unknown reasons.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow had “heard no official statements and let us judge based on them, because we are currently based on media reports only.”

U.S. snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis set a lot of firsts on her fifth try.

The 36-year-old won her first gold medal on Wednesday (women’s snowboard cross) to give her country its first such hardware of the 2022 games. She also became the oldest American woman to win a Winter gold.

You can call it redemption for her devastating loss (though she wouldn’t) at the 2006 Torino Olympics, during which she celebrated prior to crossing the finish line and wiped out. She also failed to medal in the Pyeongchang, Sochi and Vancouver Olympics.

“I never thought of it that way [redemption],” she said. “That was not in my mind. I wanted to just come here and compete. It would have been a nice, sweet thing, but I think if I had tried to spend [time on] the thought of redemption, then it’s taking away focus on the task at hand, and that’s not why I race.”

Jacobellis is 9 and 12 years older than her silver- and bronze-winning contemporaries.

“This feels incredible because this level that all the women are riding at is a lot higher than it was 16 years ago,” Jacobellis said. “So I felt like I was a winner just that I made it to the finals, because that’s been a challenge every time.”

It was a five-day streak with no gold medals for the U.S.; in the last eight Winter games it’s taken on average 1.75 days for the country to win its first gold.

Just two days after crashing out of her first run in Monday’s giant slalom, American Mikaela Shiffrin failed to make it past five gates in Wednesday’s slalom after, skiing off-line just seconds into her run.

“It feels like a really big let-down,” she said. “I was trying to look back and think about the last days and what I’ve been trying to do, what I’ve been doing with my skiing that would suggest that on the fifth gate I would push myself a little bit too hard to actually be able to stay in the course.

“[But] my skiing has been really solid. My entire career has taught me to trust in my skiing if it’s good skiing, and that’s all that I have to rely on these race days.

“And when the pressure is high—and of course the pressure is high, but that didn’t feel like the biggest issue today—and there are some nerves and the feeling that I want to do well, I always just go back to that fundamental idea that good skiing will be there for me.

“It’s not the end of the world and it’s so stupid to care this much, but I feel I have to question a lot now.”

‘It’s A Let-Down Of Everything’

Shiffrin came into the Olympics with aspirations of making history as the first U.S. alpine skier to win three medals at a single Winter Olympics—hopes which are now all but over.

The 26-year-old defending Olympic giant slalom champion and 2014 Olympic slalom champ had recorded just two DNFs in the last four years prior to Beijing 2022; she now has two in three days.

“It’s a let-down of everything, letting down myself, letting down other people,” she said. “I think there were some people that expected I might win, maybe hoped I might win.

“I know that for the people working closest to me, we were all crossing our fingers and also doing all of the work I could possibly do to give myself the best chance. It’s a let-down for them, we came all this way.

“We are not done yet but GS and slalom, those were my biggest focuses. It really feels like a lot of work for nothing. They will try to say: ‘This happens and it’s OK, and don’t be too hard on yourself,’ but it is a lot of work for a grand total of five gates in the GS and five gates in the slalom. That’s not lost on me.”

‘I Don’t Know How To Handle It’

Shiffrin had mentioned before the games that she intended to ski in all five solo alpine skiing events, with downhill, super-G and alpine combined still left to go. That may not be the case now, though.

“I will try to reset again, maybe try to reset better this time but I also don’t know how to do better because I just don’t,” she said. “I have never been in this position before and I don’t know how to handle it.

“The hill and the ski track looks pretty incredible and I think it will be a pleasure to ski, but I also have some teammates who are really fast and we have the athletes who can fill the spaces, so if I am going to ski out on the fifth gate, what’s the point?”

Team USA bobsledder Josh Williamson will be representing the United States in the Bejing Winter Olympic Games.

Team USA luger Emily Sweeney will be returning for her second Olympic Games in Beijing after breaking her neck in the 2018 Olympics.

Team USA freestyle slopestyle Maggie Voisin will be returning for her third Olympic Games this year in Beijing and hopes to take home her first medal.

Team USA bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor is getting ready to compete in the Beijing Olympic Games, while also taking care of her son.