Kondratyuk on bronze medal at 2022 Games: ‘This is exactly one more Olympic medal than I expected in my life’

Russian figure skater Mark Kondratyuk said being denied gold in the team tournament at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing is not the best outcome, but noted he never expected in his life to win a medal at the Games.

On Friday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) announced that it had rejected the Canadian side’s appeal against the results of the figure skating team competition at the 2022 Olympic Games. The Russian athletes retained their bronze medals.

“I am happy that I had the Olympic Games in my life and I am happy that they have finally ended. Two and a half years of constant experiences have hardened me, I no longer feel any special emotions, but in a few days I managed to write at least something.

Figure skating is my job, my business, and any medal is a nice bonus that I get when I do my job well. The most precious thing for me is the sporting journey, with all its ups and downs, victories and defeats, smiles and tears, moments of absolute happiness and seconds when you want to give up. This is what made me the person I am.

Yes, the final result is not at all what I would like to see. Moreover, when the Olympic championship was not only close, it was ours. But “bronze” in this context is an Olympic medal. This is what the majority of children who were brought to figure skating dream of, the majority of parents who sent these same children to figure skating. Honestly, this is exactly one more Olympic medal than I expected in my life.

All’s well that ends well! — wrote Kondratyuk on the Telegram channel.

The Russian team won the team tournament, but after Kamila Valieva was disqualified for an anti-doping rule violation, the results of the competition were revised. The International Skating Union (ISU), after canceling Valieva’s results, placed the American team in first place, the Japanese team in second place, and the Russian team was supposed to receive bronze. Team Canada, which placed fourth, also claimed third place by filing an appeal with CAS against the ISU decision.

As a result, the American team took first place in the tournament with 65 points, the Japanese team (63) took second place, and the Russian team (54) took third place. Valieva, Kondratyuk, Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov, Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov performed for the Russian team in Beijing.

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