Skategate stunning by any standard

NEW YORK (AP) -- Figure skating has had more than its share of craziness through the years. This is, after all, the sport that gave us Tonya and Nancy and the whack heard 'round the world. The sport where sequins, makeup and hair gel are not just accessories, but necessities.

But the shenanigans at the Salt Lake City Olympics topped anything even skating had seen: Allegations of a back-room deal that grew from whispers to roars. A duplicate set of gold medals. Conference-room drama and banishments. Two proposals to change the judging system, including one that would scrap the celebrated 6.0 mark.

And then, just when the soap opera was finally dying down, a reputed Russian mobster was arrested on charges he was the ringleader of the whole mess.

"Just more intrigue," longtime coach John Nicks said in August, "which is one of the things this sport thrives on."

There was some action on the ice, too. Favored to win the Olympic gold medal, Michelle Kwan came up short again, watching yet another spunky U.S. teenager grab her spot on the podium.

This time it was Sarah Hughes, who pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Olympic history when she vaulted from fourth after the short program to gold with a mesmerizing performance. Kwan settled for the bronze.

Kwan did win her sixth U.S. title, tying her with Theresa Weld Blanchard and Gretchen Merrill for second place on the career list. Only Maribel Vinson, with nine, has more.

In the men's competition, Timothy Goebel won the bronze, becoming the first U.S. man to get a medal since Paul Wylie won silver in 1992.

But it's the pairs scandal that will be skating's legacy from Salt Lake City.

Shady deals have been skating's dirty little secret for years, and skaters have been cheated out of medals and titles before.

Most skaters simply learned to accept it, knowing they couldn't do much about it.

"In my life, I have been judged unfairly a lot of times -- both ways," Olympic gold medalist Alexei Yagudin said. "I might be first when I do not deserve it and I might lose when I should be first. It evens out."

The antics in Salt Lake City were so blatant and humiliating, though, that skating had little choice but to do something about it.

Despite an obvious technical error, Russia's Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze won the Olympic pairs gold over Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, who skated flawlessly. The Delta Center crowd booed when the standings were posted, and NBC commentators howled in disgust.

That probably would have been the end of it, except French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne broke down in front of her fellow judges, saying she was pressured to "vote a certain way" in a deal involving the Russians. And she blamed French federation president Didier Gailhaguet for doing the arm-twisting.

With the scandal growing juicier every day and overshadowing the rest of the games, the International Olympic Committee awarded duplicate gold medals to Sale and Pelletier.

Though Le Gougne later recanted her accusation, the International Skating Union suspended her and Gailhaguet in April for three years, and barred them from the 2006 Olympics.

"As far as the ISU is concerned, this case is over," ISU president Ottavio Cinquanta said.

Oh, no. Not even close.

Three months after Le Gougne and Gailhaguet were suspended, Alimzan Tokhtakhounov, alleged to have ties to the Russian mob, was arrested in Italy on U.S. charges he'd tried to fix the pairs and ice dancing competitions in Salt Lake City.

According to the criminal complaint, Tokhtakhounov helped arrange the gold medal for the Russian pairs in exchange for a victory for the French ice dancing team. For his "help," he reportedly was to get a French visa.

Maria Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat of France won the gold in ice dance.

Tokhtakhounov has denied any wrongdoing, but the FBI is now digging around. Federal agents already have interviewed some judges, and ISU officials have been warned they might be approached at the world championships in Washington in March.

Imagine the fun: Skating folks in their fur coats and jewelry, arriving for the sport's premier event of the year, only to find somber-looking agents with earpieces as their welcoming committee.

Even when the investigation is done, Tokhtakhounov's case still has to be resolved. His extradition hearing isn't until Jan. 7, which means the story could drag on for a while.

"I think it will take a very long time for it to be behind," said Sally Stapleford, former chairwoman of the ISU's technical committee and a key witness to the scandal. "It's not going to be over in a few months."

Definitely not what the ISU and IOC want to hear.

Meanwhile, the ISU is trying to find a way to prevent another fiasco. At its congress in June, the ISU approved a reform project that would replace the century-old 6.0 scale with an X-games style points system complete with high-tech, touch-screen computer technology designed to reduce the subjective influence of judges.

Every element -- jumps, spins, footwork -- would have a given value, and, using a touch-screen computer, judges would grade skaters on how well they performed each skill.

Judges also would score skaters on their artistic performance, choreography and their interpretation of the program. Instead of the 6.0, there could be triple-digit scores and world records.

But the project is still a work in progress. In the meantime, the ISU is using a super-secret system where a computer randomly picks which judges' scores will count.

The system is supposed to protect judges from outside pressure, because no one can be sure whose marks are being counted. But critics worry it gives unscrupulous judges even greater freedom to make deals.

"I don't see the new system will change the situation because it won't control it," Yagudin griped after seeing it in action at Skate America. "We had such a great system before. Just leave it the way it was."

But that would leave skating open to more scandals, and the sport wouldn't want that.

Would it?

"The problem is when nobody is talking about your sport," Nicks said. "When I got back from the Olympics, everyone on my block wanted to talk figure skating, and that's never happened before.

"It's a negative, but we've survived worse than this."

 

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