These Olympic Figure Skaters Might Get Their Medals By Mail Because Russia Made It Awkward
"Four years of hard work just to wait for UPS."
A bunch of athletes will miss out on the chance to get a medal at the actual Olympics, and it's all because of a teenage athlete from Russia.
Olympic officials say they won't hold any medal ceremonies if figure skater Kamila Valieva is involved, after the 15-year-old was caught with a banned heart medication in her system.
Valieva, 15, tested positive for the drug at a competition before the Olympics, but the results only came out after she had won first place in a team figure skating event in Beijing.
But authorities didn't strip her of her gold medal in the event. Instead, they decided that no one will get a medal in Beijing if Kamila makes it to the podium. Rather, there will be "dignified medal ceremonies" after her status has been sorted out.
And everyone else is not cool with that.
“So everyone's medals are going to be shipped to them? Yay for Olympic moments,” former Olympian Chris Knierim said, according to The Associated Press. "Four years of hard work just to wait for UPS to deliver your Olympic medal. Hope they have tracking numbers at least."
The International Olympic Committee hasn't said exactly how it'll deliver the medals, but they'll likely need to go through the mail at some point to get to the various countries involved.
"She had a positive test," former U.S. Olympian-turned-coach Adam Rippon said of Valieva on Twitter, where he's been ripping the IOC all week.
Rippon described the decision as a "slap in the face to every athlete who plays by the rules," and described the women's event as a "complete joke" because of it.
Officials are still hashing out Valieva's case and no final decision has been made on her team figure skating medal.
Either way, it's a bad look for Russia. The country is already banned from using its name, flag and anthem at the Olympics this year because of a systemic doping program that it ran at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.
If Valieva does get to keep the medal, the the other medals will go to the U.S. and Japan, NBC reports. If Valieva's team is disqualified, everyone else gets bumped up and Canada will get a bronze.
Meanwhile, Valieva is leading the figure skating short program at the Olympics, and could cause another incident if she does take first place in the end.
In other words, this might get even more awkward before it's all over.