American Figure-Skating Judges Gave Themselves a Black Eye

Figure-skating judges in the United States have become recognized in recent years as the world’s fairest, overcoming the perception that they determined the winners and losers long before the skaters laced on their boots.

For example, they gave Scott Davis the men’s title he earned last week in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships instead of merely presiding over a coronation for the presumed winner, Brian Boitano.

But five of the nine judges assigned to the pairs competition Saturday in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships reverted to their old sleight-of-hand tricks, playing a game with the 9,492 spectators at Joe Louis Arena of, “Do you believe us or your lying eyes?”

There was no real debate about their decision that Jenni Meno and Todd Sand of Costa Mesa deserved first place ahead of runners-up Kyoko Ina and Jason Dungjen of Monsey, N.Y., although an argument can be made that the latter challenged themselves more technically.

It was as obvious, however, as Sand’s black eye that third place should have been awarded to Natasha Kuchiki of Canoga Park and Rocky Marval of New Egypt, N.J., who train together in Monsey, N.Y., instead of Karen Courtland and Todd Reynolds of Newark, Del.

As a result of the controversial scoring, Courtland and Reynolds earned the third and last berth for the U.S. pairs team in next month’s Winter Olympics in Norway.

The spectators booed when it became obvious Kuchiki and Marval had been underscored. Not all of them would have been able to define what makes one performance better than another, but, like obscenity, they know it when they see it.

Courtland and Reynolds have been together for 2 1/2 years, so it is natural that the freestyle program they performed Saturday was both more refined and demanding than the one skated by Kuchiki and Marval, who have been together for four months. But the difference was that Kuchiki and Marval did what they planned with no major mistakes, while Courtland and Reynolds had three falls. Reynolds skated the final minute with so much ice on his back that he looked like Omar Sharif in “Dr. Zhivago.”

Nevertheless, five judges gave Courtland and Reynolds better scores than Kuchiki and Marval.

Because judges do not discuss their duties with reporters, one can only assume they believed Courtland and Reynolds would make better use of the Olympic berth. So they gave it to them.

“It was like pro wrestling,” said Michael Rosenberg, the agent for Kuchiki and Marval. “That’s not saying anything bad about Courtland and Reynolds because they’re as nice as any people you’ll ever meet. But they were outskated, and everyone in the arena saw it. It was disgraceful.”

Marval, who won the national championship in 1992 and ’93 with Calla Urbanski, was diplomatic with reporters before he finally allowed his frustration to surface.

“From what I understand, we were counted out from the beginning because of our previous performance,” he said of their fourth-place finish in a qualifying competition. “I don’t think it was fair.”

Kuchiki, 17, the 1991 national champion with Sand, seemed resigned.

“The judges will do what they want to do,” she said. “I’m not really worried about that.”

In only their second season together, Meno and Sand, a native of Thousand Oaks, have developed as one of the world’s best pairs. They finished fifth in last year’s World Championships. Both skated in the 1992 Winter Olympics with other partners.

Sand performed with a shiner over his right eye suffered when Meno elbowed him during a practice last week.

Sand will recover from the black eye Meno gave him. It will take longer for the sport to recover from the one it gave itself.