Entertainment Sports Olympics U.S. Figure Skating Team Finally Receives Gold Medals After 2022 Russian Doping Scandal The Team USA athletes were presented their gold medals more than two years after the Beijing Games By Natasha Dye Natasha Dye Natasha Dye is a writer-reporter for PEOPLE covering sports. Her previous work appears in The New York Post and Popstar! Magazine. People Editorial Guidelines Updated on August 7, 2024 12:06PM EDT Comments U.S. Olympic figure skating team pose with gold medals during special ceremony in Paris. Photo: Michael Reaves/Getty The wait is over for Team USA's 2022 figure-skating gold medalists! Two and a half years after the 2022 Winter Olympics, the Team USA athletes who won gold in figure skating in Beijing finally received their gold medals in a ceremony at Champions Park in Paris. The athletes — Nathan Chen, Vincent Zhou, Karen Chen, Alexa Knierim, Brandon Frazier, Madison Chock, Evan Bates, Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue — were presented their gold medals alongside the members of Team Japan, who received their silver medals. The ceremony took place in front of thousands of fans just below the Eiffel Tower, where the athletes celebrated with floral bouquets in their hands. The athletes posed for fun group shots, recreating figure skating positions as fans cheered for them. Madison Hubbell and Brandon Frazier of the U.S. Olympic figure skating team pose for a photo after receiving gold medals on day twelve of the Olympic Games Paris 2024. Michael Reaves/Getty See 18 of the Most Incredible Pictures Taken at the Paris Olympics So Far At one point, Bates and Chock appeared to shed tears during the long-awaited ceremony. According to NPR, attendees brought American flags and chanted "USA," as the athletes were awarded their hardware. In a video shared by NBC on X (formerly known as Twitter), the star-spangled banner can be heard playing during the ceremony as the athletes received their medals. Winter Olympics Rewind: Looking Back on 2002 'Skategate' Scandal That Transformed Figure Skating The U.S. figure skating team initially finished in second place in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. However, it was later discovered that ROC athlete Kamila Valieva of the first-place winning team tested positive for the banned substance Trimetazidine. The International Olympic Committee decided that no medals would be presented during the 2022 Games as an investigation remained ongoing. Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. The committee announced on July 25 that Team USA would be awarded their gold medals two and a half years later at the Paris Olympics. In a statement at the time, the IOC said it had “great sympathy" for the athletes who have "had to wait for two years to get the final results of their competition," according to the Associated Press. To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, come to people.com to check out ongoing coverage before, during and after the games. And sign up for Going for Gold, our Olympics newsletter, to get the biggest stories from the Games delivered straight to your inbox. Watch the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, beginning July 26, on NBC and Peacock.