US figure skaters celebrate gold medal from Beijing Olympics with a touch of bittersweetness
Evan Bates sat on a table at the U.S. figure skating championships last weekend, feeling lousy despite having just won a fifth ice dance national title because of a flu bug that nearly kept him from performing with partner Madison Chock.
He felt a lot better — in a lot of ways — by Tuesday morning.
That's when Bates and Chock awoke to learn they were suddenly Olympic champions. The had ruled a day earlier that Games, presumably elevating the second-place Americans to first in the team event. But exactly how to allocate the medals was left in the hands of the and the International Skating Union.
