Silence on Valieva doping scandal has figure skaters still unsure about Olympic medals

Every once in a while, Nathan Chen and the rest of the American figure skaters who finished second in the team event at the Beijing Olympics will get on a group chat and catch up on everything happening in their lives.

Things that aren't happening, too, like a medal ceremony for the Winter Games.

Eight months after finishing behind the Russians, the U.S. team has yet to receive its medals or even know whether they will be silver or gold. The Russian Anti-Doping Agency only recently completed its painfully slow investigation into Kamila Valieva, the now-16-year-old wunderkind whose positive doping test that surfaced during the opening week of the Olympics led to its biggest scandal in years.

The U.S. team could then be elevated to gold, Japan to silver and the fourth-place Canadians to the bronze medal.

WATCH | Latest on Russian figure skating scandal:

RUSADA did not reveal the results of its investigation, though it did say the next step would be to hold disciplinary hearings in September or early October. That timeframe has come and gone without any updates.

"That's probably the hardest part, having no knowledge of the situation," Chen, who also won individual gold in Beijing, told The Associated Press. "We get updates and it's always, 'We have no idea what's going on.' That's super annoying."

That probably won't happen any time soon, though. If Valieva was found to have violated doping rules, she would likely appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. And if she's cleared, it would be the World Anti-Doping Agency or International Skating Union that presumably would appeal to the highest court in international sport.

Sarah Hirshland, the CEO of the USOPC, called the delay in the awarding of medals "an outrageous