Modern Biathlon: Skating/Whining

Here are the results for Winter Olympics whining:

Gold: Russia.

Silver: South Korea.

Bronze: Canada.

Richard Clark

Los Angeles

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It’s a bummer? At least Greg Norman no longer has to carry the title as the Greatest Choker in Sports History. That torch has been passed to Michelle Kwan.

Matt Stein

Los Alamitos

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The purpose of the Olympics, simply put, is to foster peace. Young athletes from around the world are brought together in a non-political setting in order to meet, enjoy their youth and mutual talent, and hopefully to take some good feelings home with them. Keeping a running tally of medals is in complete opposition to this purpose. In fact, awarding medals at all may be the worst error.

Why can’t this one meet be set aside as a display of ability, rather than as a life-and-death competition? That way if a skater slips once in a four-minute program, 10 years of work are not thrown out the window. It’s just a slip.

The ice shows can still hire whomever they want. The skaters can still duke it out for endorsements in other competitions. Let this one event, the Olympics, be what it was intended to be.

Bart Braverman

Los Angeles

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Olympic figure skating fans have seen many years of judging nonsense--the most ridiculous was Torvill and Dean having to settle for bronze in ‘94, while Russians were magically blessed with both gold and silver.

Other recent questionable Olympic results: Alexei Urmanov over Elvis Stojko (‘94), Viktor Petrenko over Paul Wylie (‘92), Oksana Baiul over Nancy Kerrigan (‘94), Katarina Witt over Elizabeth Manley (‘88), Klimova/Ponomarenko over the Duchesnays (‘92). Hell, the Ukrainian judge who was suspended in ‘98, after being caught on tape telling the finish for the Nagano dance competition before skating had even begun, is back at Salt Lake City.

In Olympic pairs and dance, whenever it’s close, somehow the Eastern Bloc skaters manage to win--and not because they have been better every time. The exposure of corruption in figure skating judging is long overdue, and real change needs desperately to follow. My fear is that officials will simply try to better hide the stink.

Vicki Bartmess

Venice

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It’s understandable that the parents of Russian skaters Anton Sikharulidze and Elena Berezhnaya are shocked at the prompt, independent and just decisions of the International Skating Union and the International Olympic Committee to correct an admitted instance of judging misconduct. The abuses of judges rendering decisions influenced by the government and other administrators, and the resigned acceptance of that system, was the essence of the Soviet political world in which those parents grew up. While perhaps they can’t help it, we can only hope that their children’s generation sees the wisdom of publicly righting an official wrong.

David R. Ginsburg

Santa Monica

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Bill Plaschke criticizes the award of the second pair of Olympic figure skating gold medals because vote-rigging by Marie Reine Le Gougne was “only an accusation” and due process hadn’t been served.

Wait a minute! In The Times’ own front-sports page “From Silver to Gold” chronology, under “Thursday, Maneuvering,” it’s asserted that Le Gougne told the head of the International Skating Union she had, indeed, “submitted to a certain pressure.”

Which is it, Mr. Plaschke, did Le Gougne admit the truth of the accusation or didn’t she? If she did admit to submitting, what part of your due process has been failed?

Bill Hoffine

San Diego

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Bill Plaschke has it all wrong! The easy way out for the IOC would have been the way His Excellency Good-Old-Boy Samaranch would have handled it: Investigate it to death, hand it back to the ISU and watch while nothing happens for 20 years or more and hope it goes away.

Dr. Rogge, although still a bit too Eurocentric for my tastes, has put his stamp on the IOC early and hard. I just hope it will be a lasting change that comes about.

Albert Caban

Lakewood

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At first I didn’t understand why ice dancing is considered an Olympic sport. But after watching several nights of big hair, strange costumes and disco dancing, all set to bad music, I now realize it exists simply as an attempt to legitimize the pairs event. One night they’re dressed up as matadors, the next day they look like extras from the Ice Capades rendition of “Les Miserables.”

Any event (let’s not call it a sport) in which the contestants (let’s not call them athletes) have hair-weaves and wear theatrical makeup cheapens the Olympics.

That scowling French woman with the flaming-red hair who “won” the competition was the first sign of the apocalypse.

Dane Eurich

Redondo Beach

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Due to a race official’s error--whether it was intentional, we’ll never know--my son was deprived of his place on the winner’s stand. We know first place was rightfully his, because we defeated the “winner” three times in unofficial races.

What to do? Whine about it? Demand a do-over? Or sue, with the hope that the championship might be stripped from the declared winner and presented to my son in a special, hollow ceremony?

With wisdom and grace that belie his 8 years of age, my son chose to let the matter pass, even though he had prepared for years. His outlook--that even good people sometimes do the wrong thing, and that there shall be other races--will serve him well; indeed far better than a trophy ever will.

Unlike the Olympic figure skaters, rather than whining about the results, and seeking redress after the fact, he’ll make sure the playing field is level before next year’s competition. After all, the stakes are just as high in the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby.

Mark S. Scott

Long Beach

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I want the U.S. hockey team to win the gold medal. And what would be better than seeing the U.S. get the gold and Canada the silver? However, Wayne Gretzky’s whining has changed my thought process.

Gretzky can cry all he wants about how everyone wants Canada to lose and how European teams beat up on the poor Canada squad, but the fact is, all of Canada should be crying about the team Gretzky picked to represent his country. Where the heck is Joe Thornton? Where is Patrick Roy? Gretzky should have stroked Roy’s ego just to get him there.

Wayne, you have reason to cry about the Olympics, but what you should cry about is the poor job you have done.

Scott Daloisio

Chino

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Wow! Two whole pages on Jim Shea and his gold medal in the skeleton. Great uplifting story of an Olympic family.

But what happened to Tristan Gale and Lea Ann Parsley and their amazing performances? Did they vanish like a Belarus ski jumper? Where was their story? One whole sentence in the L.A. Times? Is this another example of NBC-style coverage?

Arturo Adame

Redondo Beach

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One of the most enduring Winter Olympic memories I have is the electric downhill run Franz Klammer put together to come from behind and win the gold medal in 1976. That and the three gold medals Jean Claude-Killy won back in the late ‘60s.

But had those events been covered by American television then the way Olympics are these days, we would be saying, “Franz who?”, “Jean Claude-what?” Instead, we would have found out about the courageous 16th-place finish by the best American competitor.

Franz Klammer is a household name to those who saw that race. This year’s American skiers will be as well known a year from now as the loser of the Super Bowl. The Olympics have devolved from sports coverage to personality coverage, from Sports Illustrated to People magazine.

Dennis Schroeder

Lake Forest

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The IOC and U.S. Olympic Committee should correct the gravest of injustices ever. They should apologize to Tommy Smith and John Carlos for their reaction to these American athletes’ peaceful and truthful display of conscience.

Dick Ramirez

Valencia

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A punishment more fitting than sending Marie Reine Le Gougne to the guillotine would be to end the use of French as the language of the Olympics.

Oliver Berliner

Beverly Hills

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Because President Bush feels that it’s appropriate to award duplicate first-place awards in disputed contests, when does Al Gore get his desk in the Oval Office?

Gary Durrett

Glendale