The U.S. figure skating team received a gold medal at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday, two years after a doping scandal rocked the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
It was first time in Olympics history that athletes were not awarded with medal on site. Nine Americans, Nathan Chen, Vincent Zhou, Karen Chen, Alexa Knierim, Brandon Frazier, Madison Chock, Evan Bates, Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue, were formally confirmed as gold medalists in the figure skating team event at the 2022 Beijing Olympics by a sports court ruling last month, opening the way for the team to finally receive the medal in Paris.
The controversy began in Beijing when it was revealed that Russia’s Kamila Valieva had tested positive for a banned substance before the Winter Games. She continued to compete after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that she should be able to do so pending her appeal.
Valieva and other Russian athletes competed as the Russian Olympic Committee, as Russia itself was prohibited from participating in the Games due to previous doping violations.
Wednesday's special medal ceremonies that honored athletes whose results have been upgraded because of doping cases was held in the Champions Park plaza looking across to the Eiffel Tower on the opposite bank of the Seine River. Japanese figure skaters who received the silver in the same event stood next to Team USA athletes and waved to the cheering crowd after two and a half years.
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"It was definitely a lot of waiting and the team started to feel this is not gonna happen," Nathan Chen told NBC. "So, to finally get that call and know that we're coming was very exciting."
Watch the rest of the team's reaction below:
