A Proud Nation Congratulates Team USA for the Gold Medals They Were Awarded in Paris Today. In Figure Skating.
In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." That's a sentiment I think we all would like to accept as true. Because it offers hope to all those who are suffering in an often crooked and unfair world.
And so it is that today, after many years of injustice, a great wrong is being made right at long last. The downtrodden will be victimized no longer. The persecuted have thrown off the yoke of oppression and the wretched refuse will breathe free. Team USA Figure Skating will finally receive the Gold medals that were denied them in 2022.
First, by way of background, you may remember Russia's aggressive move against a peaceful neighbor - Beijing - in February of that year:
Me on February 16, 2022: In case you missed the news over the past 12-24 hours, Russia's power move to take over a previously peaceful but vitally strategic area of the world - international Figure Skating - continues.
Olympic favorite Kamila Valieva, a week after leading Russia to Gold in the team competition and days after it was revealed the 15-year-old tested positive for a banned heart medication, proved you can't spell "Valieva" without "L-I-E" by giving Olympic officials the lamest excuse in the history of excuses:
It was not only an outrageous claim made to justify an illegal move that violated all international law, it was so immoral that ambassadors to the sport Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski could not hide their disgust:
Worse still, allowing the cheating skaters to remain in the competition won the Russians the all-around team Gold, pushing the deserving, ultra-clean, rules-abiding, non-cheating Team USA down the podium to Silver in a competition they had won fair and square.
That is, until today:
Source - United States Olympic figure skaters will finally experience the feeling of having a gold medal placed around their necks — nearly 2 1/2 years after their winning performance at the Winter Olympics in Beijing.
The team will receive its medals during a ceremony at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Those U.S. figure skaters are Nathan Chen, Vincent Zhou, Karen Chen, Alexa Knierim, Brandon Frazier, Madison Chock, Evan Bates, Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue.
The athletes have been involved in an unprecedented Olympics controversy for over two years. When the team competed in Beijing, it initially finished behind the Russian Olympic Committee, earning the silver medal in February 2022. But shortly after the event, there was an investigation into then-15-year-old Russian athlete Kamila Valieva, who tested positive for a banned substance two months before the Winter Games began.
So congratulations are very much in order for these Olympic champions and great Americans:
They have finally gotten what they so rightly deserved for the past 30 months. But what's more, they reaffirmed that we do, in fact, live in a sane and just universe where righteousness can and will prevail. Yes, one can argue the old adage that "justice delayed in justice denied." But it's all the sweeter when you finally do get it.
How you like them apples, Putin?
FAZRY ISMAIL. Shutterstock Images.