French Chief: No Collusion

Denying collusion between French officials and “any other country” to trade votes in pairs skating for votes in another figure skating event, the head of the French Ice Sports Federation said Thursday that the pressure felt by judge Marie Reine Le Gougne was nothing unusual in the “figure skating game.”

Le Gougne has been the center of a firestorm since Monday, when sources say she told other skating officials she felt “extreme pressure” to vote a certain way while judging the Olympic pairs event. She was among five judges who voted for Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, who were awarded the gold medal over Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier in a controversial decision.

“In skating, everyone talks with everyone,” Didier Gailhaguet, president of the French Ice Sports Federation, said. “Judges, officials, they go to practices and predict who is going to win. One person will say, ‘Doesn’t that skater do a good jump?’ and another will say, ‘Don’t you think that skater looks good?’ This isn’t done to influence the results but to persuade that something is the best.

“Of course, all this is more difficult to handle in the special atmosphere of the Olympics. More people are talking to the judges. Marie Reine felt very strong emotional stress that had lasted for several months. Perhaps she overreacted a little.”

Le Gougne made her comments about pressure Monday night to fellow judges, according to a highly placed Times source and several other news reports. She made them again during the event review meeting Tuesday.

Gailhaguet has several roles at this Olympics. He also is team leader of the entire French team and a member of the International Skating Union council that will discuss the pairs situation at a meeting Monday. The Canadian Olympic Assn. is trying to have a second gold medal awarded to Sale and Pelletier.

International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge asked the ISU on Wednesday “to take adequate action as quickly as possible.” That request was repeated Thursday by U.S. Figure Skating Assn. President Phyllis Howard.

ISU President Ottavio Cinquanta said Thursday the organization would not advance the date of the planned hearing.

Some fear results in the two remaining Olympic figure skating events, dance and women’s singles, could be compromised because judges will feel pressured to come down hard on French or Russian skaters and be lenient to Canadians because of the uproar the pairs decision has caused in North America. It has been called the biggest scandal in the history of figure skating, a sport long buffeted by allegations of backroom deals.

“I feel it is a scandal to call this a scandal,” Gailhaguet said. “I sincerely hope this exaggerated polemic doesn’t affect the events that will follow. The athletes should not have their achievements diminished by all this.”

Le Gougne, who was not scheduled to judge any other event, had switched hotels because of media pressure, Gailhaguet said.

Le Gougne admitted to being intimidated by the reaction of the sellout crowd at the Salt Lake Ice Center, which booed lustily when the scores were announced. The public and media outcry over the decision further unnerved her, Gailhaguet said.

“The atmosphere here is very particular,” Gailhaguet said. “To have 15,000 people around you, mainly people from North America, the judges are not used to this, especially the European judges,” Gailhaguet said.

“Marie Reine told me she was leaving with her head up. A judge is like a skater. They can make a mistake.”