FBI Will Probe Ohno Threats

Threatening e-mails regarding short-track speedskating gold medalist Apolo Anton Ohno have been turned over to the FBI for investigation, the U.S. Olympic Committee said Thursday.

The threats were received after Ohno’s first race, when he won the silver medal in the 1,000 meters after wiping out near the finish line, USOC spokesman Mike Moran said.

Another 16,000 e-mails regarding Ohno, mostly from sources in South Korea, forced the USOC to take down its Internet server early Thursday, Moran said. Service was restored almost nine hours later.

Ohno was the second one across the finish line Wednesday night but won gold when South Korean Kim Dong-Sung was disqualified for blocking him during the last lap of the 1,500 meters.

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The French judge at the center of the figure skating scandal calmly denied to International Skating Union investigators that she was part of any vote-swapping deal and said she voted for the Russian pairs team on merit, her attorney told Associated Press on Thursday.

In three hours of testimony Wednesday, Marie Reine Le Gougne recanted the accusations that several witnesses reported hearing her make in an emotional outburst last week following the pairs competition, attorney Max Miller said.

“She was under extreme pressure, feeling emotionally assaulted and even physically assaulted when she made those statements,” Miller said.

Asked why she had named French skating chief Didier Gailhaguet as the one who had pressured her into voting for the Russians over a Canadian pair, Miller said, “She did it to escape further pressure, to deflect criticism.”

The ISU suspended Le Gougne indefinitely last week, and she could face permanent suspension. Miller said Le Gougne wants to be reinstated.

Gailhaguet has denied pressuring Le Gougne.

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The Japanese Olympic Committee apologized to local authorities after a cross-country coach inadvertently pointed an unloaded biathlon rifle at police in Heber City, near the Soldier Hollow venue.

Coach Kazunari Sasaki, who said he had never handled a gun, asked the biathlon coaches if he could hold one of their rifles. He pointed the weapon toward a window in their hotel room, and two police officers in a room directly across the way saw the gun pointing in their direction.

The officers quickly came to check, and Sasaki was still holding the rifle when he wheeled to face them as they entered the room.

The JOC commended the officers for the “great restraint they exhibited in this manner.”

Sasaki, speaking through an interpreter, said: “I didn’t know anything about gun etiquette. I heard afterward that if I pointed a gun at the police officers, they could have shot.”

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Former King Jari Kurri, an NHL Hall of Famer and an assistant coach for the Finnish men’s team, was elected to the International Olympic Committee’s athletes’ commission.

Alpine skier Pernilla Wiberg of Sweden, cross-country skier Manuela Di Centa of Italy and speedskater Adne Sondral of Norway also were voted to the panel in balloting by athletes at the Games.

Wiberg and Di Centa, the leading vote-getters, each will serve eight-year terms; Kurri and Sondral will serve four years.