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Le Gougne Defense Fund Posted: Wednesday May 01, 2002 1:43 PM
I approach you today on behalf of the Marie-Reine Le Gougne Defense Fund. Sally Struthers or maybe a few of those NBA stars who are teaching the world to read normally would do this public-service job, but, alas, they are busy elsewhere. An injustice has been perpetrated on Madame Le Gougne, a humble, innocent, hard-working figure skating judge from France. She, along with her boss, Didier Gailhaguet , has been suspended for three years by the International Skating Union for their alleged bias in the pairs gold medal judging at this year's Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
Sacre bleu. Qu'est-ce c'est? Alors, alors. Not since the Dreyfus Affair -- that's the failure of Julia-Louis Dreyfus' sitcom this year -- has such a public outrage been perpetrated against a person of such pure heart and keen eye. Is it true that Madame LeGougne said that the Russians, who the rest of us thought skated like Chris Farley and Nancy Kerrigan on Saturday Night Live, like Tie Domi on a breakaway, like the Hanson Brothers in Slapshot, deserved the gold? Yes. Is it true that she said the Canadians, Jamie Sale and David Pelletier , skating like a Disney dream, deserved silver? Yes. But who are we to judge the judge? She saw what she saw. She felt what she felt. Is it true that she cheated? Mais non. Never. Just look at this woman, mon ami. Is this the heavily made-up face of someone who ever would be involved in boardroom intrigue? Send us your dollars. Send us your francs. Free Marie-Reine Le Gougne. Leigh Montville's commentaries appear regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated.
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Sports Illustrated's Leigh Montville questions who we are to judge former Olympic judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne. 
