Skating Union Did Little to Clean Up Salt Lake Mess

The International Skating Union did itself no favor by imposing three-year suspensions on figure skating judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne and French skating federation head Didier Gailhaguet and banning them from the 2006 Winter Games.

Not only is it unlikely they will serve their full sentences, if the reductions of other judges’ sanctions are precedents, the sentence is too lenient.

If the ISU had such air-tight proof of their misconduct regarding the pairs competition at the Salt Lake City Games that it could impose a three-year ban, it should have taken one more step to moral high ground and banned both for life.

The ISU could have shown the world--and especially the International Olympic Committee, which was horrified when the judging scandal engulfed the Games--it won’t tolerate unethical practices among its judges and officials. Instead, it delivered a rap on the gloved knuckles of Le Gougne and Gailhaguet and called it a punch.

ISU President Ottavio Cinquanta cast himself and the decision as courageous and sage. He called the ban “not too short and not too long.”

He also said the ISU “is sending a message that it is doing the utmost to protect the actors of the sport--the athletes.”

If he really wanted to protect them, he would have made sure they don’t have to put their careers in the hands of Le Gougne and Gailhaguet again.

By not setting a tough standard, Cinquanta merely fed critics who say he can’t effectively govern a sport he knows little about. His background is in speedskating, which is under the same ISU umbrella as synchronized skating and figure skating.

Frank Carroll, coach of Olympic bronze medalist Tim Goebel and former coach of Olympic silver and bronze medalist Michelle Kwan, believes figure skating would be well served by having its own governing body. If it weren’t lumped with the other ice sports, it might--at least in theory--have a better chance of being run by someone familiar with the sport and its unique problems.

“I think figure skating and speedskating should be separate things,” Carroll said. “They’ve gone in totally different directions and have very little in common.”

Carroll, long a critic of bloc judging and politicized judging deals, called the suspensions of Le Gougne and Gailhaguet “better than nothing.” He added, “I hope this is a situation where the ISU says, ‘Get your act together and play fair.’”

Doug Williams, president of the All Year Figure Skating Club of Culver City and a national judge, called the suspensions “a good first step.” But Williams, a former pairs skater, believes the ISU has work to do toward restoring its integrity, and he hopes to see progress at the ISU Council meeting next month in Kyoto, Japan.

The judging reforms Cinquanta proposed during the Salt Lake City Games will be discussed at Kyoto, where the U.S. Figure Skating Assn. plans to introduce its own ideas. Cinquanta’s proposal included expanding the judging panel from nine to 14 but counting only seven of those scores, chosen at random. He also wants to discard the system of working downward from a perfect 6.0 score and instead score upward from zero, based on a list of point values for jumps and moves.

“It’s not necessarily the system that’s broken, but some of the people who are in it are tired and need to be replaced,” Williams said. “If you’ve got a corrupt court, you’ve got to get rid of the people who make it corrupt....

“I don’t know if there’s going to be a consensus at the Congress. I think nine judges on a panel is sufficient. Look at the Supreme Court: a lot of decisions fall 5-4.

“There has to be better due diligence in the [judges’] selection process. The ISU has to be more involved in how they’re selected. Once they’re nominated as international judges by their federations, they should have faith in those judges’ abilities.”

Judges must be renominated by their federations each year, which gives too much leverage to federation heads such as Gailhaguet. Making judges less beholden to the federations for appointment makes sense. But it’s difficult to imagine ISU council members willingly relinquishing that power. And under the ISU’s media-unfriendly policies, they can vote at Kyoto to keep the status quo and not have to answer for it.

Russian judge Sviatoslav Babenko and Ukranian judge Alfred Korytek, who were suspended for three and two years, respectively, for exchanging hand signals at the 1999 World Championships, had their terms cut in half on appeal. If the sentences against Le Gougne and Gailhaguet are similarly trimmed, the ISU might as well close up shop because it will have no credibility at all.

Run to Glory

The Kenyan men’s and women’s teams are favored to win the titles at Sunday’s world half-marathon championships at Brussels.

The Kenyan men will be led by Charles Kamathi, winner of the 10,000 meters at last year’s World Championships, and the women by Tegla Laroupe, the women’s marathon world-record holder.

Each team enters five runners, but only the top three times count toward the team score.

The U.S. men’s team finished 13th last year at Bristol, England, and the U.S. women were eighth.

Here and There

Australian runner Cathy Freeman, who became a national hero when she won gold in the 400 meters at the Sydney Olympics, is having problems with a thigh bone as she resumes training after a 13-month layoff. Freeman had to miss her national championships last month but was named to the Australian team for this summer’s Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England, pending a fitness test in July.

Suzy Powell set an American record in the women’s discus throw last weekend at the UC San Diego Open. Her throw of 227 feet 10 inches (69.44 meters) broke Carol Cady’s 1986 record of 216-10 (66.10 meters).