I feel like Facebook birthday reminders kind of killed this, but there used to be a pretty sizeable section in greetings card racks in the drug store for cards essentially apologizing for missing your birthday. So even though you didn’t get your gift when you expected it, here it is now. That is kind of like what’s happening to the 2022 American Olympic figure skating team that won silver in the team event. They finished behind the Russians and ahead of Japan. Now, two years later, that’s about to change, as the International Court of Arbitration for Sport has finally decided that then 15-year-old Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva was disqualified from the 2022 Beijing Games, meaning the American team would now move to first and the Japanese second. Oddly enough, the Russians will now finish third, a ruling that isn’t sitting well with the still fourth place Canadians, but that’s another story. So, two years after they probably should have gotten their gold medals, these nine American skaters will finally get their prize. Better late than never.
If you remember, this is all happening because Valieva tested positive for a banned substance weeks before the Games, but a confluence of Russian interference and the argument that she was a minor threw this into a state of paralysis, one eased only a bit when she finished fourth in her individual competition. So after two years of arguments and hearings, the Court has ruled, and the US, not Russia, are or were the best in the world. The IOC has stated there would be a dignified medal ceremony at some point in the future – and remember, first they need to actually get all the medals back. The USOC said to time to let the celebrations begin. Even though only two of the nine American skaters still compete. Again, better late than never.
There’s a fairly long history of individuals and teams losing medals or championships, some of it for doping and a lot for rules violations, especially in American college sports. For example, technically speaking, USC was not the 2004 BCS football champion, as they vacated their 2005 Rose Bowl win over Oklahoma because of a cash under the table scandal. But I’m fairly certain they still consider themselves the victors, and they didn’t then hand the championship over to Oklahoma – whose then coach Bobby Stoops said he wouldn’t claim it anyway, especially after losing 55-19 to the Trojans. Cycling took away all seven of Lance Armstrong’s Tour de France titles and left them vacant. But no matter what you think of Lance, he still won those races, if only unofficially at this point. Regardless of what’s fair, revisionist history is nearly impossible in the landscape of sport, where history is written in a definitive moment, not over the course of evolutionary history.
Which brings us back to the 2022 Olympic skaters and what to do now. On the one hand, there’s nothing fair about one nation blatantly breaking the rules when others perhaps didn’t. It like one kid cheating through high school to get into Stanford while other kids did the work only to get rejected. If it were your kid and you knew, wouldn’t you want some justice? But is getting a medal two years later really the same thing. And what did you already miss out on because didn’t get the prize. Then again, would you want transfer to Harvard after you’re already happily enrolled in some other school. At some point, history is just that.
Clearly, it’s complicated. And perhaps what’s most left behind here is the value placed on process. In other words, the idea that sport is more defined by the journey than the outcome. It’s cliché to recognize that most athletes get far more out of sports participation than by its affirmation – excluding those who stand to earn millions from that recognition. But when awards are the singular prize for a life’s work, that strips much of sport’s inherent value. It also explains why cases like these have such emotional weight. And I’m not suggesting the American team shouldn’t want the gold nor that they don’t deserve it. It’s just a reminder that in a landscape where rule breaks are typically one step ahead of enforcement, an outcomes assessment can lead to a lot of heartbreak.
But it seems the misery will soon end for the 2022 American Olympic skating team. As they say, better late than never.
Keith Strudler is the director of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. You can follow him at @KeithStrudler
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