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Conspiracy theory?
By Maria Titze
Deseret News Olympic specialist
Conspiracy theories anyone?
Sure enough, a French team leads the ice dancing competition after its first phase. Never mind that Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat skated a quick step with lightness and ease and treated the crowd at the Salt Lake Ice Center to a smoldering blues dance to claim first place Friday night.
Rumors of collusion between judges to fix Monday night's pairs competition for the Russians in exchange for a win for France in ice dancing simply would not die — even after news earlier in the day that the International Skating Union had suspended France's representative on the pairs panel, Marie Reine Le Gougne.
Reporters peppered the the competitors with questions about "fairness" and asked whether the athletes had confidence in the judging system.
"You know the most important thing is to have confidence in ourselves," Peizerat responded. "The rest is not our business, because we can't do anything about it. It has happened to us so many times — things with the judging — that we have learned to get away from it."
The Russian team of Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh are right behind the French and hungry for a gold.
"Today, the fight has just begun," Averbukh said.
There is a Canadian team in the running for a medal in ice dance, too, a couple happy that a second gold medal will be awarded to the Canadian pair of Jamie Sale and David Pelletier.
"It's exciting that Canada got a gold. It's good that (the officials) did something," said Shae-Lynn Bourne, who with partner Victor Kraatz hold the fourth-place position after the compulsory dance behind Italians Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio. "But Victor and I just tried to keep ourselves separate from what was going on."
There is plenty of legitimate drama in ice dance without an international sport scandal. The French team are fresh from a victory at the European championships over the Italians, who are the reigning world champions.
And the French lost to the Canadians at the Grand Prix final in December — and the Canadians have had trouble of their own, finishing fourth at the past world championships.
The Russian team burst onto the competitive scene in recent months after missing half the season because of an injury to Averbukh's knee.
Friday's compulsory dances only count for 10 percent of an ice dance team's overall score. The competition continues Sunday with the original dance.
E-MAIL: mtitze@desnews.com
Deseret News Olympic specialist Jenifer K. Nii contributed to this report.
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February 16, 2002
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