Salt Lake revisited

Figure skating results could be changed, warns IOC chief

Jacques Rogge: "The information we have received is too much to be ignored." AP

VENICE, Italy (AP) -- Rewriting results tainted by the Salt Lake figure-skating scandal "is definitely not impossible," Olympics chief Jacques Rogge said Saturday, amid anger over the alleged involvement of a reputed Russian mobster in fixing competitions.

Rogge, speaking to reporters at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England, said that medals might be reviewed if criminal involvement is proven.

"We do not rule out anything, it will depend on what we find," the International Olympic Committee president said. "A rewriting of the results is definitely not impossible."

However, Rogge said he opposed wiping skating off the Olympic program.

"Scrapping events or sports at the Olympic Games, I think that would be a wrong measure. The athletes are innocent. They deserve to have good competition, it's our role to ensure the judging is fair," he said.

The biggest judging scandal in Olympic history already resulted in duplicate gold medals being awarded to the Canadian pairs team. The scandal over alleged vote-fixing flared again this week after Italian officials arrested an accused Russian mobster for allegedly manipulating Olympic results.

The man accused of scheming to fix the results of the two events contends that he doesn't even follow the sport and said the charges against him are a "farce." Elsewhere, outraged figure skaters have threatened to sue over media coverage of the investigation.

Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov was arrested Wednesday in Venice on U.S. charges he helped put together a vote-swapping deal to fix the results of the pairs and ice dancing competitions.

The Russian suspect's lawyer said Saturday that a preliminary hearing to validate his client's arrest under separate Italian charges would be held Tuesday at the Venice jail where he is being held. Tokhtakhounov will likely be held in Venice throughout the traditional Italian vacation period of August, with the extradition process beginning sometime thereafter.

Much of the case against Tokhtakhounov is based on phone conversations recorded during an investigation into the Russian mob. Italian police say Tokhtakhounov indicated in wiretaps that as many as six Olympic judges could be involved.

U.S. prosecutors say a "co-conspirator" connected with the Russian Skating Federation did the legwork after being contacted by Tokhtakhounov. The co-conspirator was not named in the complaint filed in New York, nor were any of the judges or other people who might have been involved in the scheme.

After meeting Tokhtakhounov in a Venice jail, lawyer Luca Saldarelli said Friday that his client told him he worked "as an intermediary in international affairs" and was innocent.

"He's absolutely surprised. He doesn't know anything about the Salt Lake City Olympic Games," said Saldarelli, who indicated earlier his client would fight extradition. "He's not even a fan of figure-skating."

Saldarelli said his client was a "friend of some great Russian athletes, but not Olympians."

In France, Didier Gailhaguet, the suspended head of the French skating federation, denied having any contact with Tokhtakhounov "before, during or after" the Olympics.

But he said the federation met with him in the spring of 2000, at Tokhtakhounov's request, about a possible partnership "for the benefit of a Paris ice hockey club." Gailhaguet didn't elaborate, saying only that there was no follow-up to the exchange "and no contacts kept up."

Italian police said they had been looking into the Russian for his alleged involvement with a Moscow-based crime group called the Sun Brigade.

Tokhtakhounov is accused of scheming to get a French judge to vote for the Russian pairs team, and a Russian judge to vote in turn for the French ice dancing team. Both teams won.

French skating judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne said the day after the pairs competition that she had been pressured to vote for the Russians. She later recanted but still was suspended, as was Gailhaguet. Le Gougne has said she doesn't know Tokhtakhounov.

The judging scandal resulted in duplicate gold medals being awarded to Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, the Canadian pairs team that finished second to Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze.

Sikharulidze and Berezhnaya said they planned to sue U.S. television networks for using pictures of them in connection with coverage of the reputed mobster, and the Russian Olympic Committee said it would meet with lawyers.

"These events resemble the theater of the absurd," committee spokesman Gennady Shvets said, according to the Interfax news agency. "It's clearly a dirty and foolish insinuation that undermines respect for Russian sportsmen."

A week after the pairs competition, France's Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat won gold in ice dancing. Investigators say the winning female ice dancer -- presumably Anissina, although she is not named in court papers -- spoke to Tokhtakhounov on the phone after the event.

Anissina, a native Russian who skated for France, also said she would consider taking legal action to stop the "defamation" against her.

"Gwendal and myself never needed anybody to help us win our gold medal in Salt Lake City," Anissina said in a statement issued by the French Skating Federation.

"I categorically denounce all the slanderous, unjust, and disgraceful allegations that were made against me after the arrest of Mr. Tokhtakhounov."

 

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Police: Tokhtakhounov spoke to six judges Russian skate pair threaten to sue U.S. TV networks French skating chief denies links with alleged fixer Skating suspect calls fixing charges a 'farce'

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