The International Olympic Committee has added a new option for the ceremonies to reassign Olympic medals, which can now take place at the “Parc des champions” of the 2024 Paris Olympics, in front of the Eiffel Tower, in the gardens of Trocadéro.
This measure could apply to the team figure skating event of the 2022 Beijing Olympics, whose podium was reshuffled at the end of January after the doping suspension of young Russian skater Kamila Valieva. The Americans immediately expressed their desire to receive their gold medal in Paris.
For now, the IOC’s executive committee has not scheduled any specific ceremony, but on Wednesday adopted a recommendation from its athletes’ commission, increasing the possibilities of reassigning a medal to seven.
In addition to “the next edition of the Olympic Games”, for reassignments after the 2018 Olympics, athletes could already choose between a ceremony at the Youth Olympics, at the IOC headquarters or at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, by their national Olympic committee or international federation, or at a private ceremony.
“As an exception,” the IOC’s athletes’ commission decided to recommend adding the “Parc des champions,” explained the commission’s president Emma Terho in a statement. Located in the gardens of Trocadéro in Paris, this vast, free space open to everyone was designed for athletes to celebrate their medals with the general public.
This option will be available to athletes “whose reassignment has already been approved by the IOC’s executive committee before the 2024 Olympics, but who have not had their ceremony,” as long as “all possible appeals by sanctioned athletes or teams have been exhausted,” specified the Olympic body.
This last condition could prevent the holding of the figure skating team event podium at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, with over two years delay: at the end of February, Russian and Canadian skaters appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to challenge the final ranking, claiming respectively first and third place.
