Fifty years on, skater siblings become Olympic medalists

The sister-brother pairs skating team placed fourth in those Games, but they were awarded bronze medals a couple of years later when it was determined that the German team had signed a professional contract with Holiday on Ice before the Games. At that time, amateur status was taken seriously, and the Germans were stripped of their silver medal.

The Americans accepted their bronze medals at a ceremony at the Sheraton Hotel in Chicago, and the Canadian team of Debbi Wilkes and Guy Revell was honored with silver medals at the 1967 Canadian national championships.

But in 1987, at an IOC executive board meeting in Istanbul, the Germans were deemed “rehabilitated” and quietly re-awarded their silver medals. The official Olympic results have never reflected the Josephs as the bronze medalists or the Canadians as the silver medalists.

Until Tuesday

After an inquiry by The New York Times, which resulted in an article on December 13, 2013, the IOC confirmed that the Soviet Union remained the gold medal winner, Canada and West Germany shared the silver, and the Josephs had the bronze. In an email, the IOC said that despite the information on its website over the years, this was intended to be the official result since 1987.

Delayed update

After much effort by U.S. Figure Skating, the United States Olympic Committee, Skate Canada and the Canadian Olympic Association, the IOC updated its website on Tuesday.

With the Josephs recognized by the IOC as bronze medalists, the United States now has 48 Olympic figure skating medals – the most won by a single nation in the Winter Games.

“I am ecstatic,” said Vivian Joseph, who lives in suburban Chicago. “I am sorry it wasn’t done sooner, but I am happy it is finally done.”

The Josephs lamented that their coach, Peter Dunfield, who died at age 82 last May 25, and their parents were not able to witness the change. Dunfield had engaged in much effort trying to rectify the results. The Josephs have been invited to award the championship pairs medals at the national championships in January in Greensboro, N.C.

Not faded into past

“After more than two decades of confusion, we are pleased to see Vivian and Ronald Joseph as the rightful Olympic bronze medalists,” David Raith, the executive director of US Figure Skating, said in a statement. “We respect the way the Josephs have handled the issue, knowing that this confusion has caused them much heartache and frustration.”

Wilkes believed her cause was one that “had faded into the past long ago.” Over the years, she would be identified as a silver and bronze medalist, and always felt awkward discussing the matter publicly. She worked for Skate Canada before retiring this year and called the IOC’s website update a “tremendous retirement gift.”