Skaters Not Only Ones Spinning

Questions and answers from Friday’s gold-medal skating decision:

Question: Have Olympic medals ever been rewarded after competition ended?

Answer: Seven times previously, a medal has been awarded to an Olympic athlete later. But this is the first for alleged judging impropriety.

Q: What kinds of things brought other reversals?

A: Discovery of pro careers in the days when the Olympics were allegedly amateur; statistical scoring errors, etc. The most recent reversal occurred when a judge in synchronized swimming at the ’92 Summer Games hit the wrong key on her scoring keyboard and said so immediately. A year later, the rightful winner received her medal.

Q: When will the Canadian pairs team be awarded their gold medals?

A: The decision is pending, but the International Olympic Committee is leaning toward handing them out at the medal ceremony in the Medal Plaza tonight.

Q: Will the Russians, the original gold-medal-winning team, and the Chinese bronze-medal team, be there, standing on the podium with the Canadians?

A: That, too, will be decided today. If you are inclined to bet, bet no.

Q: Are there a bunch of spare gold medals lying around for cases just like this?

A: Absolutely not. Olympic officials had one on hand, at the firm in Salt Lake that designed and manufactured the medals, O.C. Tanner. But that one was supposed to be for the archives. O.C. Tanner had to work fast. It had produced 862 medals for Salt Lake, now it was going to up that total to 863. The Salt Lake Organizing Committee called immediately after the announcement Friday morning. The company had a blank, but much hand-work needed to be done. Each medal is made of sterling silver and six grams of gold plating on top.

Q: So, is the medal ready?

A: The medal, plus the spare, were picked up shortly after 6:30 p.m. Friday, by none other than SLOC President Mitt Romney, in an armored car.

Q: Is this decision the end of the controversy?

A: It’s not even the end of the investigation. According to Ottavio Cinquanta of Italy, president of the International Skating Union, his group had enough evidence to award the additional gold medals, but is still pursuing details.

Q: What was the specific action taken against the French judge in question?

A: She was suspended indefinitely.

Q: What does that mean?

A: Traditionally, in international sports, these suspensions last about as long as the media stay interested. Once the media stop caring, stop writing and broadcasting about it, she comes off suspension. Look for Marie Riene Le Gougne in a judging box near you soon.

Q: Isn’t this too complicated a case to resolve so quickly?

A: Yes.

Q: Why did they do it this way?

A: Because they sincerely felt that this story was taking over the Games, detracting from the performance of other athletes. They also got beat down by the daily crush of media reports.

Q: But didn’t they say that the pressure from the media didn’t influence their decision?

A: Yes, they said that.

Q: Are they not telling the entire truth?

A: There is a term for this. It is also used in political reporting a lot. It is called “spin.”

Q: In retrospect, was this really that big a deal?

A: A huge deal. The Olympic movement mouths honesty and integrity and character building and fair play every time it parts its lips. So to have some evidence of a tainted judging decision, or at least a tainted state of mind affecting a judging decision, is significant.

Q: So, in the long term, will there be reforms, fixes? Or will we go through this again?

A: Probably. The Olympics are run by thousands of people in hundreds of organizations, most of them very well-meaning but a few with agendas that are not in line with the Olympic ordeal. Expect to get your double lutzes in an uproar again in a few years.

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Staff writers Alan Abrahamson and Gary Ambrose contributed to this report.