9 - 15 May 2002
Issue No.585
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 9 - 15 May 2002 Issue No.585 |
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Judges find judges guilty
She was labeled the "Bin Laden" of figure skating, but a more appropriate description, and less harsh, of Marie-Reine Le Gougne might be the "fudge judge" for the mysterious -- at least it seemed that way to most of North America -- deciding vote she cast in favour of the Russians in the figure skating debacle in Salt Lake City.
For four days after she cast the vote that caused worldwide controversy in February, French figure skating judge Le Gougne was indeed called many things until the International Skating Union (ISU) decided to award duplicate gold medals to the Canadians. Seeking closure, the ISU last week slapped a three-year ban on Le Gougne and her French federation chief Didier Gailhaguet.
The punishments were the consequence of what might have been an attempt to fix an Olympics. At the Winter Games, the ISU and the International Olympic Committee made the exceptional decision to award a duplicate set of gold medals to the Canadian pair of Jamie Sale and David Pelletier after Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze of Russia had been declared champions. The basis for the move was an alleged confession from Le Gougne that she had been under pressure from Gailhaguet to favour the Russian pair.
Le Gougne later retracted the accusation, saying she was in emotional distress at the time and had been harassed by ISU officials into making false claims against Gailhaguet. The ISU did not buy Le Gougne's recant nor Gailhaguet's claim that he was innocent of any wrongdoing
There is plenty of evidence stacked against Le Gougne and Gailhaguet. Replays show Sikharulidze clearly botched a jump; the ISU heard testimony from 13 witnesses, almost all of whom made allegations against Le Gougne or Gailhaguet; and the ISU says it has testimony from at least three people who heard Le Gougne say she gave her vote to the Russians in exchange for a French medal in ice dancing. (To whom, though, would she utter such a damning confession save her neighbourhood priest?)
In their defence, the ISU did not call the other four judges who voted for the Russians as witnesses. The only judges who testified were from Canada and Germany and both voted for the Canadians.
Figure skating judging is an iffy profession. A field of up to 30 skaters are assessed; each one must be scrutinised for the slightest deviation. When the programme is over, the judges have just 20 seconds to make a decision -- without the benefit of slow-motion replays -- which will be scrutinised for years to come.
Because of unpredictable judges and their rulings, Le Gougne was supposed to be the catalyst for an overhaul in a sport in which there are few objective measures to decide winners and losers. There were supposed to be serious and permanent international judging reforms instituted. But the ban on Le Gougne and Gailhaguet only ensures that both will be found nowhere near ice rinks for a few years. Whether they deliberately attempted to give a gold medal to somebody who did not deserve one might not ever be found out. Their suspension will not help in getting to the bottom of Skategate.
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