Olympic Figure Skating Teams USA (gold) and Japan (silver) receive their medals from the Beijing 2022 Figure Skating Team Event during a special ceremony held at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, Champions Park, on August 07, 2024 in Paris, France. © Getty Images
It is with much delight that the International Skating Union (ISU), in collaboration with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), was today able to finally award the medals of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Figure Skating Team Event during a special ceremony held in front of thousands of passionate sports fans at the Champions Park in Paris. Team USA and Team Japan received their well-deserved gold and silver medals respectively in the presence of ISU President Jae Youl Kim. The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), which obtained the bronze medal, was not represented at the ceremony due to the ongoing suspension of the ROC.
Team USA and Team Japan skaters embarked on a long journey before stepping onto the Olympic podium to enjoy this unique moment. Team USA – composed of Nathan Chen, Madison Chock/Evan Bates, Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue, Alexa Knierim/Brandon Frazier, Vincent Zhou and Karen Chen – alongside Team Japan – Kaori Sakamoto, Shoma Uno, Wakaba Higuchi, Yuma Kagiyama, Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara and Misato Komatsubara/Tim Koleto – showed much joy and emotions when receiving their medals.
Olympic Figure Skating Team USA receive their gold medals from the Beijing 2022 Figure Skating Team Event during a special ceremony held at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, Champions Park, on August 07, 2024 in Paris, France. © Getty Images
Nathan Chen, Olympic Champion from Beijing 2022 in the Men's event was delighted to receive his gold medal for the Team Event: "We all wished to be able to celebrate this medal together as a team, so it was really great that we were all able to come here and share this moment together. As skaters we're all individual athletes, we skate alone, we do medals alone, we do all this alone, so to be able to have a moment like this where we're actually collectively together as a team, we've been training and competing and knowing each other so many years, so we're all family at this point in time."
Brandon Frazier from Team USA expressed his excitement: "It's everything I hoped and dreamed about when starting this Olympic journey. To get to live a moment like that, it's indescribable. It's incredible."
While Alexa Knierim put it very simply: "Liberating. It was a relief, it was excitement, it was adrenalin, it was pride. It was everything that's positive."
Olympic Figure Skating Team Japan receive their silver medals from the Beijing 2022 Figure Skating Team Event during a special ceremony held at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, Champions Park, on August 07, 2024 in Paris, France. © Getty Images
Tim Koleto from Team Japan was elated to receive his silver medal in Paris "These last two and a half years have been very long. In the situation in Beijing we were unable to have family and friends come in person to watch us compete and celebrate this moment with us, so it's such a super special moment to be able to celebrate alongside family and friends and our other competitors. To do it in front of the Eiffel Tower is something even in my wildest dreams I didn't imagine."
His Ice Dance partner Misato Komatsubara (JPN) added "Figure skating is usually an individual sport, unlike this, with everybody, all of our friends. It feels like a family."
The Olympic Games Paris 2024 provided a fitting and vibrant setting for this long-awaited tribute, celebrating the spirit of perseverance, sportsmanship and integrity in sports. Thousands of fans gathered at the Champions Park, located in Trocadéro Gardens, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, to honor the deserving Olympians.
Olympic Figure Skating Teams USA (gold) and Japan (silver) receive their medals from the Beijing 2022 Figure Skating Team Event during a special ceremony held at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, Champions Park, on August 07, 2024 in Paris, France. © Getty Images
ISU President Jae Youl Kim, who had the privilege of awarding the gold medal to Team USA, expressed his heartfelt congratulations to all the athletes’ exceptional performances and resilience: "It is a great honor to be able to present the medals to the skaters here today in the Olympic city of Paris. I am pleased that this case has finally come to an end, and that the medalists now get the recognition and celebration they rightfully deserve. The ISU will continue to work tirelessly with its Members and relevant stakeholders to make ice-skating sports clean and fair for all athletes, and is committed to take concrete actions to uphold integrity and safeguarding across all its events and through the implementation of its Vision 2030.”
The ISU is focused on continuing to grow and develop ice-skating sports around the world through innovative reforms and initiatives guided by Vision 2030 and the groundbreaking decisions taken during the last ISU Congress (read here).