US Figure Skaters Still Waiting On Medals 500 Days After Beijing Games

Members of the United States figure skating team are still waiting on their medals 500 days after winning them at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

They've now been waiting for so long that their empty medal boxes are on display in the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum in Colorado Springs.

“As the time has gone by, it almost feels like it didn’t happen at times,” ice dancer Madison Chock told NBC Sports. “And when we think about it, it’s hard not to get emotional and just feel kind of sad about the whole situation, and how it’s turned out and how long it’s taking to be handled.”

That situation is a doping investigation involving Russian skater Kamila Valieva. Then 15-year-old Valieva failed a drug test a few months before the competition. However, she was allowed to compete.

The Russian Olympic Committee won gold with the US and Japan taking silver and bronze respectively

But with controversy brewing, the IOC went with the simple solution: no medals for everyone.

They canceled the medal ceremony pending an investigation,

That was wild. I mean, if it were an athlete from a country without a long and storied history of state-sanctioned doping, maybe I'd understand wanting to play it safe.

Russia is not one of those countries. That's why their athletes had to compete as the Russian Olympic Committee and couldn't display the flag.

However, it was announced this week that the holdout may soon come to an end. Court of Arbitration for Sport will hear the case from September 26-29.

Hopefully, athletes will soon have a medal to put in those empty boxes.

Empty boxes that came with an unintentionally ironic note from IOC President Thomas Bach: “An Olympic medal is forever."

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