A Sport That Is on Thin Ice

Was the arrest of a reputed Russian crime figure on charges he attempted to fix the outcome of the Olympic pairs and ice dancing competition at Salt Lake City merely another dip into the judging cesspool exposed in February by French figure skating judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne?

Or has it opened a new and more treacherous pit, one that could swallow the last of figure skating’s tattered credibility?

No matter that International Skating Union President Ottavio Cinquanta has pushed through a series of judging reforms intended to minimize the deal-making and vote-swapping Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov allegedly tried. More than five months after the pairs judging scandal threatened to devour the Olympics, five months after Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze pasted smiles on their faces and shared gold-medal glory with Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, the integrity of figure skating judging has again become front-page news.

And that can’t be good

“I think the credibility has always been somewhat in doubt within the tight-knit skating fraternity,” veteran coach John Nicks said. “But now that has expanded, and many, many more people will have more questions that we in the business have had for years.”

Wednesday’s announcement left many questions unanswered, including some that could blow the sport apart.

Tokhtakhounov was taped making a series of calls to “unnamed conspirators” during the Games that “lay out a pattern of conduct that connects those two events,” U.S. Atty. James Comey said of the pair and ice dance competitions. Who were those conspirators? Judges? Skating federation officials? Referees? Other reputed Russian mafia henchmen? All of those possibilities are frightening.

If the corruption lies largely within the sport, if Tokhtakhounov was a lone wolf out for personal gain--in his case, a visa that would have permitted him to reside in France--maybe it can be cleaned up.

Maybe Cinquanta’s hasty but earnest efforts will have an impact. Maybe the new judging system for International Skating Union events, in which 14 judges will rate skaters’ performances but only nine scores randomly chosen by a computer will count toward the final score, will minimize the chances for vote trading. Involve too many people, and someone inevitably will talk, and the plot will be revealed.

But if the corruption is coming from outside and Russian crime figures have their tentacles into figure skating, the implications are chilling.

Perhaps 10 years ago, when the Russian economy was disintegrating and the country’s best hockey players began flocking to North America, alleged Russian mafia figures were suspected of blackmailing players by threatening to harm families and friends back home if players didn’t share their big, fat NHL paychecks. It was discussed only in whispers, because players were too afraid of reprisals to enlist the help of U.S. or Canadian authorities.

A player would appear at a game or practice with a black eye or a bruised leg, reluctant to say how it happened. Many terrified players simply kept quiet and paid off their blackmailers.

No evidence has become public that suggests Russian crime figures approached skaters. Lynn Plage, a publicist for the Champions on Ice tour--whose cast includes Russian Olympic medalists Irina Slutskaya, Alexei Yagudin and Evgeni Plushenko--said Wednesday the skaters told her they didn’t know Tokhtakhounov and were as surprised as everyone else about his arrest.

Nor, apparently, did the ISU know of Tokhtakhounov’s alleged misdeeds. Erik Christiansen, an attorney for Le Gougne, said an FBI agent asked her during the Games if she knew Tokhtakhounov. According to Christiansen, Le Gougne said she had never met him. Like Christiansen, Le Gougne’s other attorney, Max Miller, said the ISU never brought his name up during its two-day hearing into Le Gougne’s Olympic deeds.

Le Gougne and Didier Gailhaguet, president of the French ice sports federation, were each suspended for three years and banned from the 2006 Winter Olympics for their part in the pairs judging scandal. If any judge, referee or federation official is found to have behaved improperly in the ice dance judging and the victory of France’s Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat is proven to be tainted, a lifetime ban for all involved is in order. No less.

No one paid much attention when Lithuanian ice dancers Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas filed a protest over the outcome of the Olympic ice dance finale and their fourth-place finish, wondering why they skated well but didn’t pass two couples who fell and stayed ahead of them. Maybe they were on to something.

“All of our concerns were justified. Hopefully, something is going to change,” said John Domanskis, the Newport Beach plastic surgeon who was Lithuania’s press attache at Salt Lake City. “Obviously, we feel vindicated, but I don’t know how much good that is.... You always think the Olympics are so clean, but there are things underneath that people are not aware of.”

Figure skating obviously can’t police itself. And while there are issues of greater concern to national security than finding alleged mobsters who fix sports events, bravo to the feds for attempting to clean up at least a little corner of the ice.