Skating Diva Speaks: When Pigs Can Skate or Why I Quit Skating... Part 2

This week the International Skating Union pronounced judgement on Olympic Pairs Judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne of France and French Skating Federation President for Didier Gailhaguet. Le Gougne was found guilty of misconduct in fixing an Olympic event and Gailhaguet was found guilty of pressuring a judge (Le Gougne) to fix an Olympic event.

Now at this point you would think the ISU in the face of all the world attention would lower the boom and ban them for life-- right?

No! The ISU in the face of all this attention and enough evidence to convict another celebrity murder case handed down a mere 3 year ban to include the 2006 Olympics on Le Gougne and Gailhaguet.

Jeeze they have got to be kidding! This is insane!

If they play it right, this little slap on the wrists would leave Le Gougne back to judge the 2006 World Championships-- and Gailhaguet could continue his backroom dealings in exile, like he has in the past.

So, excuse me? Am I missing something? Were we not subjected to nearly a week of non-stop Olympic scandal and armchair judging by nearly everyone who has ever laced up a pair of skates, over the reasons why Sale and Pelletier should have placed first ahead of Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze of Russia or vice-versa? Did we not hear about the ISU's Executive Committee trying like hell to bury any hint of previous judging problems? Were we not subjected to the daily blow-by-blow details of ISU President Ottavio Cinquanta trying to blow off the media and their honest questions, or watch him try to upstage and overpower the IOC's President Jack Rogge when it was suggested the deal with "the matter" as quickly as possible? Amazing! I remember it as if it were yesterday!

As far as I am concerned at this point Le Gougne and Gailhaguet should be stripped from all credentials and barred from the Sport of Figure Skating for life. And from what I have heard from ISU Technical Committee members Sally Stapleford and Britta Lindgren, the judge Jon Jackson and Ron Pfenning, the referee of the Olympic pairs competition, all have said that they believed Le Gougne should have been barred for life. Other well known skaters and officials have expressed similar opinions.

The fact remains that Stapleford, Lindgren, Jackson and Pfenning heard Le Gougne confess in the Salt Lake City hotel that she had voted for the Russians because of outside pressures. That confession, which Le Gougne now denies making, was made in a hotel lobby on the night of the pairs final and confirmed at the post event judges meeting the next morning. Le Gougne signed a "confession of wrong-doing" inwhich she affirmed what the other officials has said.

Isn't this enough to get her booted for life? Afraid not.

Now is when we get to the interesting part...

The angry and over emotional Le Gougne has stated to the media that she has had her personal and skating reputation, as well as her honor and dignity tarnished for life. (Jeeze I wonder why?) She is now promising that she intends to "tell all" about the backroom dealings, lies and political interworkings of Figure Skating. "I will explain how it functions," she said. "It is a system that is extremely slanted, dictatorial and even corrupt."

Do I smell a book deal coming on? You bet ya!

Le Gougne and Gailhaguet are telling everyone they intend appeal the convictions with the IOC's Court of Sports Arbitration, which has the final say in these matters. They have 28 days to file their appeal.

In the opinion of Gailhaguet and Le Gougne, exonerating them of wrongdoing would have left the skating union no way of justifying the duplicate medals.

"Cinquanta never wanted to give two gold medals; he was forced to do it," Gailhaguet said. "And now he has to live with it."

Also they were upset about the ISU's failure to summon and pay the travel expenses of witnesses and the remaining Olympic Pairs Judges who might have been more favorable to their cause than the majority of the 13 men and women who testified during the hearing.

While personally I loath what Gailhaguet and Le Gougne did, there are points in their argument inwhich I have to agree with. ALL of the Olympic Pairs judges should have been called to the hearing. The reason they weren't was because Speedy Cinquanta never wanted to deal with the fact the pairs event might have been "fixed" from the start. It would create too much of a scandal on the ISU and the event. God knows the IOC was sitting right there in Salt Lake City, and Cinquanta and the ISU Executive Committee has no quick escape. They did escape the IOC's prying eyes at the 2002 World Championships one month after SLC, over a situation at Dance event. It is a well known fact Cinquanta handled the entire Salt Lake City Olympic Pairs situation poorly, and as the scandal went on-- it went from bad to worse and shows no sign of getting its creditability back soon.

The ISU's creditability is at stake. Even after the hearing, Cinquanta and other ISU council members have continued to declined to comment on what method they used to determine the length of the penalties the levied or even on whether they had voted unanimously or by a simple majority to determine guilt.

Again the ISU is hiding behind closed doors. This cloistered "closed club" mentality is killing the sport and if the ISU doesn't go public with the facts soon, the IOC will have no option but to take action against the ISU. The entire reputation of sport of Figure Skating is at stake.

From where I sit, it is long overdue but the International Skating Union must clean up its act from top to bottom.(I'm not the only figure skating alumni saying this.)  It is no longer acceptable for the International Skating Union or any national skating federation to hide their rules from the public. Everything must be out in the open and accessible to everyone for free. Use the www.isu.org site to post the rules publicly.

Furthermore the sport of Figure Skating needs to understand on a molecular level that it is no longer is it acceptable for any of the participating national skating federations to play footsies and politics, as well as swap votes or play favorites. The game of "I'll vote for your skaters, if you vote for mine" is no longer acceptable behavior.

And furthermore I still stand on my opinion that Cinquanta has to go. This man is completely Clueless.

The Canadian press has stated, "The pair brought shame and infamy not only on their own sport but on the whole Olympic movement, the organization's executive director, Jeremy Pope, said in a statement. For them to be merely slapped on the wrist is, frankly, absurd and exposes the Olympic movement to ridicule. Pope suggested the ISU should be suspended from the Olympics until it eliminates corruption in the sport."

If Figure Skating wants to remain an Olympic sport, it MUST clean up its act and skaters need to break their silence and speak up publicly about cleaning up the sport. Or we all lose.

Question: Does anyone have the transcripts of Marie's "60 Minutes" Interview with Ed Bradley? What was said?

3:08:55 AM