American Referee’s Slip Brings Downfall of Soviet Pair

A Soviet pair won the first gold medal Wednesday at the 1987 European Figure Skating Championships as controversy sparked by an American referee affected the event.

Larisa Selezneva and Oleg Makarov won the title while Olympic and three-time European champions, Elena Valova and Oleg Vasiliev, also of the Soviet Union, were second.

However, reigning world champions Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov of the Soviet Union did not re-do their final long program and were officially considered withdrawn.

Their first program of the night was affected by a decision by American referee Ben Wright.

Wright tried to stop the Gordeeva-Grinkov performance midway through the routine when Grinkov’s strap holding his pants leg to the boot broke and trailed on the ice.

The referee said he was thinking of the safety of the skaters and gestured and whistled for them to stop. He also ordered the music to be turned off, but the couple continued their routine as their coach motioned for them to keep skating.

“I did everything according to the rules,” Wright said, adding that he regretted the incident.

However, Gordeeva and Grinkov finished their performance without music for over two minutes. After they ended, there was a conference between the pair’s coach, Stanislav Leonovich, Wright and the Soviet team leader, Anatoli Kovalev.

It was announced that Gordeeva-Grinkov would re-do their performance after the completion of the other pairs. But Gordeeva and Grinkov did not appear when rescheduled and they were ruled withdrawn.

Katrin Kantiz and Tobias Schroeter of East Germany benefited from the incident to move up and win the bronze medal.