2002 Winter Olympic Games Figure skating
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2 Men 3 Ice Dancing 4 Women |
Judges from Russia, the People's Republic of China, Poland, Ukraine, and France placed the Russians first; judges from the United States, Canada, Germany, and Japan gave the nod to the Canadians. The International Skating Union announced a day after the competition that it would conduct an "internal assessment" into the judging decision. On February 15 the ISA and IOC, in a joint press conference, announced that it would award a second gold medal to Salé and Pelletier, and that Marie-Reine Le Gougne, the French judge implicated in collusion, was guilty of "misconduct" and was suspended effective immediately. Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze are allowed to keep their gold medal as well.
Complicating the issue is Le Gougne's subsequent recanting of her story of collusion. The investigation continues as of this writing.
IOC awards gold to Canada skaters
Russian Skaters' Win Causes an Uproar, The New York Times, February 12, 2002
Hughes and Slutskaya finished with tie scores, Hughes winning the gold medal on a tiebreaker for having won the free program in a close result. Russia filed a protest of the result the day following the event, which as of this writing is not yet resolved.\n
Pairs
A controversial decision which extended the Russian dominance of pairs skating at the Olympics. Salé/Pelletier were the crowd favorites and skated a flawless program, while Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze stumbled during their double axel. Minutes before the Canadians went on, Salé accidentally collided with Sikharulidze and was rather shaken.
SPORTS OF THE TIMES: Judging Falls Between Fix and an Injustice, The New York Times, February 12, 2002
POSTCARD: Splat, The New York Times, February 12, 2002
Russian to judgment: The facts and history behind the pairs judging controversy, David Wallechinsky, February 12, 2002Men
Aleksey Yagudin (RUS)
Ice Dancing
Marina Anissina/Gwendal Peizerat (FRA)
Women
Sarah Hughes (USA)
