US figure skaters told IOC chief they would have liked to leave Beijing with their medals

The US figure skating team told the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) they would have liked to leave the Beijing Games with their figure skating medals won 10 days ago, the US Olympic committee said on Thursday (Feb 17).

With the doping case against teen figure skater Kamila Valieva unresolved, none of the top competitors in the Feb 7 team event can receive their medals.

The US team finished second behind Valieva and her team mates on the Russian Olympic Committee. Japan were third and Canada fourth.

"We are in the same position relative to medals ceremony as we have been," the CEO of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), Sarah Hirshland, told reporters. "The athletes have expressed their view that they would like to go home with the medals, albeit at this point with the silver medals."

"It's a really frustrating and difficult situation. It's unfair to these athletes, not only on our team, but all the athletes who show up here and expect the integrity of the competition to be intact, and we did not give it to them and that's not right."

IOC spokesman Mark Adams had earlier said that while the Americans had met with Bach, the Japanese team had declined to meet with him.

"I was incredibly proud of our athletes. They were productive and constructive," Hirshland said.

"It made me proud to be on the same team with those individuals," she said, without providing more details of the meeting.

Hirshland praised the skills of Valieva as a skater but said the timing in her drugs test from Dec 25 was a major issue, given her positive test was reported only on Feb 8, a day after the Russian had helped her Olympic Committee win team gold.

"She is an exceptional skater and there is a chance she will