[CanadianBoy21]

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20020215/sp/olympics_figureskating_dc.html

By Adrian Warner

SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) - Canada's Jamie Sale and David Pelletier will be awarded a gold medal in the Olympics pairs figure skating, an International Olympic Committee (news - web sites) (IOC) source said on Friday.

``The executive board has followed the International Skating Union (news - web sites) proposal to award two gold medals and the votes of the French judge have been canceled, making the final result four votes all,'' the source told Reuters.

The Canadian duo finished second to Russians Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze last Monday, although most neutral observers thought the result should have been reversed. The source said the Russians would keep their gold medal.

Asked if the decision was the correct solution, IOC president Jacques Rogge replied: ``Yes, because it is in the interests of the athletes.''

The source said the French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne had said there had been pressure put upon her to vote for the Russian duo. Her vote gave a 5-4 verdict from the nine judges in favor of the Russians.

Rogge and ISU president Ottavio Cinquanta are scheduled to give a joint news conference at 11 a.m. (1 p.m. EST).

The furor over the judging has overshadowed the Salt Lake City Games.

On Thursday, Rogge told reporters he wanted the issue resolved as soon as possible, saying: ``I feel that the other athletes should not suffer.''

Cinquanta had said on the previous day that the issue would not be considered until an ISU council meeting on Monday.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) is due to meet at 2 p.m. (4 p.m. EST) on Friday to hear a Canadian plea that the judges at the pairs should not be allowed to leave Salt Lake City before Monday's meeting.

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

 

[ys]

Some people who can't see beyond their nose will even say that it is good for the sport. I think that this decision will have disastrous consequences for the sport.

First of all, they open a huge can of worms. Next time the compettition will be close, the loser will go directly to civil court
citing this case as a precedent. That will have an effect similar
to Bosman case. ISU has just succumbed to popular hystery. I would even expect the public celebration and new public holiday
declared in North America now.


Secondly, if there was something wrong, they fixed the consequence of the problem. OK, French judge was biased. What
about the other four judges who voted for Russians? Investigate them, find them biased or incometent, disqualify them, and switch nedals, give Russians silver. Or find out Russian Federeation was involved in this ( which should be the case if anything is true ), disqualify the whole bloody Federation and sportsmen too. Either would be a great solution. The outcry was NOT about French judge biased, the outcry was because North Americans thought that Canadians were better. That was not addressed. What ISU did, they made a scapegoat out of the French lady and after that outcry will gradually recede, and that will be it. Instead of solving problem of biased judging in the sport, they have just created new one - that since now the final results are not actually final.

Thanksfully, it is long weekend now, so I'll be out of these boards and will be able to think about better things than this nonsense.

 

[Nina_rus]

absolutely agree with ys :fiery:

 

[TheBoiledEgg]

me three :fiery: :fiery:

 

[Kris]

GOLD FOR BEST PAIR!!!! THIS IS CORRECT!!!!!!

 

[VSFan1 aka Joshua L.]

OMG, why not be happy? Russia gets the gold, Canada gets the gold.

Ys, the things you hate the most are within yourself.....


Oh, and by the way, if this board is considered "nonsense" I'm sure you won't be missed if you don't comeback.

 

[Vanity]

Finally, some good news!
I hope the Russians give theirs back, since it is essentially worthless now.
There is some justice at last! Maybe now skating can begin to have some more credibility.

 

[Tweety]

Well, I'm one who those who are thinking it was a fair decision. The Candians had a great performance, in my opinion they deserved a gold medal.

There have been so many questionable decisions in the past, so I think this was the best way to slove this problem.

 

[Keith]

I think most athlete's would not want a "tainted" gold medal. Sometimes the best do not win. I don't think that droves of people will want some type of recourse in close calls It's just that the sport is going to lose credilility regardless. The judge admitted to cheating.

 

[Scotso]

This is great news. Ys, TBE, et al. are only unhappy because they know the Canadians deserve this.

Great job Sale and Pelletier!

 

[tennisfun]

Just a test.

 

[Tweety]

Oh, what I forgot to mention earlier, Eggy can't be too serious,
he is prejudiced

 

[irma]

I wonder how the russian team feels about this, they are the ones who got involved in this and are now seen as the not real gold winners(by most of people) while they couldn`t help that this all happened either(well I think that), I would feel bad if I was one of them

 

[shelik]

Some people who can't see beyond their nose will even say that it is good for the sport. I think that this decision will have disastrous consequences for the sport.

First of all, they open a huge can of worms. Next time the compettition will be close, the loser will go directly to civil court
citing this case as a precedent. That will have an effect similar
to Bosman case. ISU has just succumbed to popular hystery. I would even expect the public celebration and new public holiday
declared in North America now.


Secondly, if there was something wrong, they fixed the consequence of the problem. OK, French judge was biased. What
about the other four judges who voted for Russians? Investigate them, find them biased or incometent, disqualify them, and switch nedals, give Russians silver. Or find out Russian Federeation was involved in this ( which should be the case if anything is true ), disqualify the whole bloody Federation and sportsmen too. Either would be a great solution. The outcry was NOT about French judge biased, the outcry was because North Americans thought that Canadians were better. That was not addressed. What ISU did, they made a scapegoat out of the French lady and after that outcry will gradually recede, and that will be it. Instead of solving problem of biased judging in the sport, they have just created new one - that since now the final results are not actually final.

Thanksfully, it is long weekend now, so I'll be out of these boards and will be able to think about better things than this nonsense.

Well said ys, GREAT post.

 

[tennisfun]

Well, I don't think it's the right thing to do. I mean figure skating is a very subjective sport, everyone has his/her own taste. Just like in tennis, someone think Venus is the best and someone think Martina or Jennifer, Serena, Davenport is the best etc even though it's not a judged sports. If we allow the public opinion (actually just north american's opinion) to sway the final results, then we can have not just 2 gold medals here, but maybe 3 , 4 or more.
I watched their skating and I personally liked the russians programmer better. I am in no way to say that S/P 's program is not good because certainly lots of people like it. So who's opinion is correct and who's is wrong? S/P skated well with no mistakes, so they got the better technical marks. But the russian's were just better artistically, at least I feel that way. So the russians are the worthy champions.
As to the French judge, I don't understand why she didn't come foward before the competition if she felt pressured and instead to confess to the referee after ? I am sure she quite understood the consequences.
BTW, congratulations to S/P, now they can be happy and stop acting like the victims any more.

 

[Hurley]

JUSTICE

Congratulations to all four Olympic champions

 

[VSFan1 aka Joshua L.]

The true victims in this are Anton and Elena...

They should be extremely proud of themselves, and know that it is not their fault because of this scandal.

Justice is served and the 4 champions will be receiving Gold Medals.

 

[thefreedesigner]

I don't think it's justice at all - it's a political fudge.

If there were really serious irregularities with the French judge (that pressure was put on to vote for the Russians - presumably by the Russian camp), then the Russians should be thrown out altogether surely.

I actually think that this is an awful decision. It means nothing and it says nothing. To me, as a vaguely interested bystander, the ISU has in this judgement illustrated that it doesn't know it's own mind, and is afraid of public opinion.

 

[Fingon]

I am far from being an skating expert, but the ISU is famous for it's corruption.

Ys pointed something out that I agree with, if the Russian federation was involved in any wrongdoing, they not only should be stripped off their medal, but banned for the rest of the games, and even banned to participate in the next Olympic game, along with heavy fines.

Now, the point is that I have no idea if the Russian Federation was involved or not, I don't think they did something too direct, if they did something at all, but maybe they did put some pressure on the judge, if that's the case, I don't consider it to be their fault, but the ISU's fault, they should select the judges more carefully and they are responsible for their decisions.

Regarding the subjectivity, well, unfortunately, this is a discipline that doesn't show a clear winner, like races for example. It's very easy in the speed competition, whoever arrives first win and the judges only have to make sure they followed the rules.

Although some subjectivity is unavoidable, they should reduce it to a minimum, there are (or should be) rules on how to cast a vote. Technical failures should be penalised and they should set up rules to judge every aspect.

Ys, the american press could have been hysterical on this, but what about the Russian press? They said this is a return to the cold war, I think they need a little perspective in their opinions, don't you think?

 

[Barrie_Dude]

YIPEE!!​

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