US figure skater Nathan Chen welcomes ‘a win for clean sport’ as Kamila Valieva’s ban hands him an Olympic gold medal

After enduring a near-two-year wait, figure skating star Nathan Chen will finally receive a gold medal as a member of the US team at the Beijing Olympics.

After enduring a near-two-year wait, figure skating star Nathan Chen will finally receive a gold medal as a member of the US team at the Beijing Olympics. The US team’s upgraded position on the podium comes after Kamila Valieva’s four-year ban for a positive drug test prior to the 2022 Winter Games, though Chen says that any joy is tempered by the reasons behind the delay. “This decision is certainly a win for clean sport,” Chen, a three-time world champion who also won gold in the men’s singles event in Beijing, told CNN This Morning on Tuesday. “However, the fact that this happened at all is a win for no one.” The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) had initially finished first in the team event in Beijing, but the 17-year-old Valieva’s ban, linked to a positive sample recorded before the Games, means that her results from the team event have been disqualified. “We competed clean for the entirety of our careers,” added Chen. “Every substance that we put in our bodies is cleared before we even consider actually taking them. Without clean sport, the integrity of the sport is diminished.” Valieva was only 15 when she tested positive for trimetazidine, a heart medication which can boost endurance. Her doping ban is backdated to December 25, 2021, when the positive sample was collected.