ISU Denies Ice Dancing Protest

The International Skating Union on Wednesday rejected a protest filed by Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas of Lithuania over what they felt was unfair judging in the free dance portion of the ice dancing competition.

The couple contended judges didn’t follow the rules in scoring the performances of the third-place Italian duo and the fourth-place Canadian duo. Both of them fell but still finished ahead of the Lithuanians, who were fifth.

“It was just a terse statement saying, ‘The judging was fair. Period,’” said John Domanskis, a Newport Beach plastic surgeon who is the Lithuanian Olympic team’s attache. “At this time we have no plan of pursuing it. We hope it will lead to some reforms. The athletes are disappointed, but this is as far as we can take it .... We just wanted to show the inadequacies of the system.”

The ISU is still investigating improprieties in the judging of the pairs event, after which a French judge said she was pressured to vote against her conscience. The Russian duo of Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze were declared winners, but Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier were later awarded gold medals.

The judge, Marie Reine Le Gougne, was suspended indefinitely by the ISU, which announced a proposed overhaul of the scoring and judging systems.

Helene Elliott