International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach said he had a “very fruitful” meeting with Team USA’s figure skaters on Wednesday, as they await a resolution from Russian teen Kamila Valieva’s doping scandal.
The US team — which includes Olympic champion Nathan Chen — missed the opportunity to collect their silver medals in the figure skating team event in Beijing due to the ongoing saga.
Bach said he and the chair of the IOC Athlete’s Commission, Emma Terho, had reached out to the US and third-placed Japanese skaters that were impacted by Valieva’s positive test.
Bach added he offered an Olympic torch to the athletes as a “token of appreciation.”
“This meeting lasted more than 1.5 hours, which was from my point of view a very fruitful meeting and covered a wide range of topics. We learned a lot about their feelings, about their sport and incidents in their sport, and attitudes in their sport,” Bach said at a news conference Friday.
Bach said the athletes proposed ideas about how the issue could be addressed. He did not share further details of the meeting, citing a privacy agreement he made with the athletes.
