| Salt Lake City |
 |
 |
| GER |
12 |
16 |
7 |
35 |
 |
| USA |
10 |
13 |
11 |
34 |
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| NOR |
11 |
7 |
6 |
24 |
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| CAN |
6 |
3 |
8 |
17 |
|
| RUS |
6 |
6 |
4 |
16 |
|
| AUT |
2 |
4 |
10 |
16 |
|
| ITA |
4 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
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| FRA |
4 |
5 |
2 |
11 |
|
| SUI |
3 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
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| NED |
3 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
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Canadian pair just hoping to get on with lives
By Jennifer K. Nii Deseret News Olympic specialist
Now that they have been promised their Olympic gold medal, Canadian pairs skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier just want to get on with their lives.
NBC, which has the television broadcasting rights to the Games, announced Saturday afternoon the Canadians will receive their gold medal at a ceremony following the ice dancing original dance competition today.
It will be welcome closure for Sale and Pelletier, though they continued to press for widespread changes in the current judging system.
"Case solved for us, case not solved for skating," Pelletier said Friday, minutes after hearing the news that the International Skating Union and International Olympic Committee would award him and Sale a gold medal, along with Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze of Russia.
The biggest story of the 2002 Winter Games swirled around the two pairs skating teams — and the judging system that apparently betrayed them. After the Russians narrowly won the event Monday, it was revealed there was misconduct on the part of French judge Marie Reine Le Gougne that compromised the results of the event.
The media circus grew even more frenzied when the news of the co-gold medal was made public Friday.
Besieged with interview requests, Sale and Pelletier met with reporters Saturday morning to announce they would hold no more news conferences.
"This press conference is meant to be a fire break," said Craig Fenech, the team's agent and attorney. "It is meant to say, 'This is the end. They're going to resume their lives.' Everybody's gotten every bit of information they have to give. Now let's move on."
Pelletier said the focus should now turn to improving the system.
"This is not about us and Anton and Elena," he said. "Don't create a situation that doesn't exist. This is about us and a chance to be judged fairly.
"I'm trying to deal with this the best I can," he said. "I feel like I'm a target here, every time I step out on the stage. It is getting harder and harder because this is turning into something like us against the Russians. I feel a little guilt for what happened, but I did not ask for that."
With increasing boldness, both camps have stepped up to state their positions. The Canadians reiterated Saturday they had no interest in taking anything away from Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze.
Clearly, though, the Canadians believed they had won the event. And as soon as news broke that gold medals would be awarded to Sale and Pelletier, the formal complaint filed by Canadian officials with the Olympic Court of Arbitration was yanked.
"Our skating speaks for itself and the competition for itself," Sale said Friday. "Everybody knows what we deserve. We know what we deserve. We're taking that home with us. That is all that matters."
Russian Olympic officials, however, said the Canadians' response to Monday's event stung like sour grapes.
"There is a gift to winning and there is a gift to losing," Russian Olympic Committee Vice President Alexander Kazlovsky said Thursday. "Canada is a country that does not know how to lose."
A Russian journalist who attended Friday's press conference and has covered 11 Olympics called the decision to award two gold medals in one event "impossible."
"This situation is rubbish, and the athletes are the victims," said Pavel Mikhalev of Moscow's ITAR-TASS News Agency, who is in Salt Lake City to cover the Games. "If this (would have been) the White House, would there now be two Bushes?"
ISU president Ottavio Cinquanta will present his proposed changes to the figure skating judging system at the next scheduled ISU council meeting, scheduled for Monday in Salt Lake City. Cinquanta also promised the investigation into the pairs judging improprieties will go on.
Meanwhile, all eyes now turn to the ice dance event, as rumors about Le Gougne's misconduct centered on possible vote trading in the pairs event for favorable treatment in the dance.
Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat of France took the early lead Friday night with convincing wins in the compulsory dances, over Russians Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh and Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio of Italy. With tremendous charisma, deep edges and nice speed over the ice, it appears Anissina and Peizerat did not need Le Gougne's help to win the votes of judges.
E-mail: jnii@desnews.com
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February 17, 2002
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