SALT LAKE CITY (voa) – In the latest Olympic results, Canada’s Catriona LeMay Doan has won the gold medal in women’s 500-meter speedskating. German skaters Monique Garbrecht-Enfeldt and Sabine Volker took the silver and the bronze.
“I think I’m getting too old for this, the excitement and the nerves,” she said later. “I hope this gives everyone (on the Canadian team) more confidence. We’ve sort of had an up-and-down week. With all the events coming up I hope this gets us more excited and it’s the beginning of more results,” said Catriona LeMay Doan.
In the meantime, the French Olympic team head has denied a report quoting him as saying the French judge in Monday’s pairs figure skating competition was manipulated.
An Associated Press report quoted Didier Gailhaguet as saying his country’s judge was, in his words, put under pressure to “act a certain way.” But Mr. Gailhaguet has issued a denial, saying, again in his words, that he completely rejects the interpretation of his reported remarks.
The French judge, Marie-Reine Le Gougne, cast the deciding vote that gave Russian skaters Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Kikharulidze the gold medal over Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier despite a clear technical error by the Russians.
The decision has unleashed a firestorm of criticism and an allegation from the U.S. official in charge of the event that one of the judges acted improperly. The International Skating Union has not revealed the nature of the allegation or the identity of the judge in question.
Ms. Le Gougne is under orders from the International Skating Union not to say anything.
Earlier, Johann Muehlegg of Spain won the gold medal in the men’s cross-country skiing pursuit competition. Two Norwegian skiiers, Thomas Alsgaard and Frode Estil, were each awarded silver medals after a photo-finish tie for second.
In the women’s alpine combined skiing competition, Janica Kostelic of Croatia took the gold, with Renate Gotschl of Austria winning the silver and Martine Ertl of Germany taking the bronze.
Late Wednesday, in the Woman’s 1500 meter short-track speedskating, Ko Gi-Hyun of South Korea took the gold, followed by compatriot Choi Eun-Kyung with the silver medal. The bronze medal was won by Bulgarian Evgenia Radanova.
