The pairs figure skating judging scandal
Salt Lake City, United States, 2002
This case is a work of fiction. The characters, names, places and events in the game do not portray real people. The account below is a factual summary, based on public sources, of the case that served as inspiration.
At the Salt Lake City Winter Games, the pairs figure skating final was held on February 11, 2002. The Russian pair Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze led after the short program, but in the free skate he stepped out of a double axel and both had shaky landings. The Canadian pair Jamie Salé and David Pelletier skated their "Love Story" program without a mistake. Even so, under the 6.0 scoring system, five judges (Russia, China, Poland, Ukraine and France) placed the Russians first, against four (United States, Canada, Germany and Japan), and the gold went to Russia.
On the return to the officials' hotel, the French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne was questioned in the lobby by the president of the technical committee of the international federation and broke down in front of other officials. She said that the president of the French federation, Didier Gailhaguet, had pressured her to put the Russians first, in a deal that would give the French pair the ice dance gold. She repeated the story at the judges' review meeting the next day, after the referee of the event, Ronald Pfenning, filed a formal complaint, but in the following weeks she made contradictory statements and even denied what she had said. Gailhaguet always denied it.
Sources
In the game
Fifth Vote
Salt Lake City, Monday, February 11, 2002, 11:30 pm. Winter Games. Two hours ago, in the figure skating pairs final, the Ukrainian pair botched a jump and two landings and still took the gold, by 5 votes to 4.
On February 15, the International Olympic Committee and the International Skating Union announced a second gold for the Canadians; the Russians kept theirs, because nothing indicated they had taken part in the deal. The new medal ceremony was held on February 17. The French judge was suspended on the spot and, later, she and the president of the French federation received three-year suspensions and were kept out of the 2006 Games. The scandal led skating to abandon the 6.0 system: in 2004 the International Skating Union approved a new scoring system by technical element, less dependent on each judge's opinion.
