Lituanians protest dance placement
boston.com
[Note: I sure feel sorry for this pair. They've been to the Olympics four times and they never had a chance to win a medal because they are from a tiny country that has no pull with the judges. In other sports like skiing, a top-notch athlete (from, say, Croatia!) can compete on an equal basis. -Snowshoe]
By Tatsha Robertson, Globe Staff, 2/20/2002
SALT LAKE CITY - One day after an International Skating Union official proposed a radical scoring system change to help prevent collusion among judges, Lithuanian skaters who finished fifth in ice dancing Monday night filed a protest yesterday questioning the judging.
Their complaints add to a mounting controversy over the judging of one of the Olympics' most popular sports.
Meanwhile, the ISU interviewed a judge who said he witnessed the French judge in the center of the scandal admit to vote-swapping. The internal investigation is attempting to answer whom French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne allegedly made a deal with and who, if anyone, pressured her to do so in the pairs competition.
''I left the interview with confidence that they'll get to the bottom of it,'' Jon Jackson, an ISU judge, told the Associated Press. ''They did a very thorough job.''
Officials also met yesterday to discuss the Lithuanian protest, which was filed with ISU referee Alexandr Gorshkov of Russia. The protest questioned how the pair could be placed behind two pairs that fell during Monday's competition.
''Our concern as the Lithuanian Olympic Committee is that our athletes have a fair chance,'' said John Domanskis, a California plastic surgeon and spokesman for the Lithuanian Skating Federation. ''We feel that we were deprived of a fair chance to be able to get a medal ... It seems awfully strange that the judging was what it was especially after the falls and there wasn't a technical reduction in the technique area. Whatever comes of that - we will see.''
Le Gougne was suspended after she voted for Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze over Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier in the pairs competition, allegedly so that French skaters would win the ice dancing competition the Lithuanians are now protesting.
Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat of France did win the gold. Russia's Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh took the silver, and Italy's Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio got the bronze. The Canadians were fourth.
''After the Italians fell, the judges put them before us,'' said Lithuania's Margarita Drobiazko. ''We skated better than them ... and nothing changed.''
Her partner, Povilas Vanagas, who along with Drobiazko placed fifth, said he is not looking to get a medal, but he believes their protest can help clean up the sport for the next generation.
''We don't want the medals put over our heads,'' said Vanagas.
Until the recent scandal that began last week, Vanagas and Drobiazko said they were afraid to protest years of unfair judging.
Drobiazko said for years they believed no one would listen to a small country like Lithuania. Although the pair said the French should have won the ice dancing competition and Sale and Pelletier deserved the gold medal, they said ice dancing has always been dominated by countries such as Canada and France, which have strong federations and partial judges.
One day earlier, ISU president Ottavio Cinquanta outlined a plan that would place 14 judges on a panel rather than nine.
A computer would pick only seven of the marks. Not even the judges would know which marks would count. The proposal was the result of years of rumors and complaints of backdoor dealings among judges, and also in response to Le Gougne's suspension.
Jackson said he and three other officials, including ISU official Sally Stapleford, stood in the lobby of a hotel shortly after the pairs competition. They said that's when Le Gougne confessed to swapping her vote.
Le Gougne recently told a French newspaper that she didn't admit to vote-swapping and that she was pressured by Stapleford to say that. But Jackson and Stapleford deny those claims.
''She was very clear and unequivocal,'' said Jackson. ''There was no misunderstanding. She's a very bright woman and she speaks perfect English. I walked away feeling they're finally going to crack open corruption in figure skating. I had just witnessed a very clear confession.''
This story ran on page D5 of the Boston Globe on 2/20/2002.
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