More than a year and a half after the Kamila Valieva scandal robbed the nine members of the U.S. figure skating team of their medal ceremony at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, the team emailed a letter Thursday morning to the Court of Arbitration for Sport asking to be granted a seat to observe Valieva’s closed doping hearing next month.
“We make our request seeking much-needed transparency that we have been largely denied throughout this arduous process,” the Americans wrote to CAS director general Matthieu Reeb in a letter obtained exclusively by USA TODAY Sports.
“The outcome of this hearing has a material effect on our lives and careers, and as an affected party, we ask for the opportunity to observe a small part of the process that has concerningly remained hidden from view despite the international attention surrounding this case for the past year and a half.