CNN –
The U.S. figure skating team will receive a gold medal for its team competition at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics after Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva was handed a four-year ban Monday over a long-running doping controversy.
Valieva, now 17, had led the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) to first place in the team competition ahead of the USA and Japan – before her doping test came back positive for the performance-enhancing substance trimetazidine.
The ban applies retroactively to December 25, 2021, the time the sample was taken. Valieva was only 15 years old at the time.
Until the Court of Arbitration for Sport decided to disqualify Valieva for “all competitive results achieved since her positive test,” no medals had been awarded due to the doping controversy.
In a statement posted on its website on Tuesday, the International Skating Union (ISU) confirmed that Valieva's results were canceled in both the individual – where the teenager placed fourth – and the team competition.
The cancellation of their results was accompanied by a reshuffling of medal positions in the team competition, in which the ROC fell to third place, while the USA and Japan moved up to first and second place, respectively. Canada remained in fourth place, one point behind the ROC's recalculated results.
Valieva's disqualification for her first place finish in the women's singles competition at the 2022 European Figure Skating Championships also meant her gold medal was lost to her compatriot Anna Shcherbakova.
In a statement Monday evening, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) said its executive director Sarah Hirschland “confirmed that she spoke with the IOC this evening and received the great news that U.S. Figure Skating athletes “The team competition was awarded the gold medal in the 2022 team competition.”
“Let the celebrations begin,” the statement said. “Congratulations Evan Bates, Karen Chen, Nathan Chen, Madison Chock, Zachary Donohue, Brandon Frazier, Madison Hubbell, Alexa Knierim and Vincent Zhou.”
The much-anticipated decision was welcomed by anti-doping bodies around the world – including the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which said medals would be awarded according to the ISU rankings.
No date or location was given for the medal ceremony, although the IOC confirmed that it would organize a “dignified Olympic medal ceremony” in the future for the United States, Japan and then fourth-ranked Canada.
CNN Sport has contacted the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Japanese Olympic Committee and the ROC for further comment.
At the Winter Olympics in Beijing, Russian athletes competed as neutrals below zero due to a previous ban for doping violations.
Despite the latest news about Valieva's suspension, Alexander Kogan, general director of the Russian Figure Skating Federation, said he still sees his athletes as the champions in the team competition.
And on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressed his opposition to the decision to disqualify Valieva.
“After we returned from China – from the Olympics – we honored these athletes as Olympic champions,” he told reporters in a conference call.
“We are convinced that they will always remain Olympic champions for us. No matter what decisions are made in this regard, including unfair ones.”
Peskov added that there can be no revisions and reductions in payments from the state to Russian medalists of the Beijing Olympics.
In its Monday announcement, the CAS said the decision to ban Valieva for four years was “final and binding” and stated that the parties “may appeal to the Swiss Federal Court within 30 days on limited grounds.”
CNN's Anna Chernova contributed reporting.