SALT LAKE CITY (voa) – After a bitter controversy that threatened to overshadow the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, Canada’s figure skating pair is to receive gold medals.
The Canadian duo, Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, finished second to Russians Yelena Berzhnaya and Anton Sukharudlidz in the pairs figure skating competition on Monday, unleashing a storm of criticism.
An Olympic source said the Russian pair would also keep their gold medal.
The narrow five-four decision Monday giving the gold to the Russians unleashed a firestorm of criticism and charges of manipulation and coercion that have overshadowed the 19th Winter Olympics.
The controversy has focused on a French judge, Marie-Reine Le Gougne, who cast the deciding vote. The chief of the French Olympic team, Didier Gailhaguet, insists the judge voted according to her conscience and was not manipulated by anyone.
Meanwhile, there was no controversy late Thursday over the judges’ decision to award the gold medal for men’s figure skating to Alexei Yagudin of Russia. All nine judges scored Yagudin’s technique at 5.9 points out of 6 for his performance, and four of them gave him a perfect 6.0 score for artistry of his performance.
Yagudin’s countryman Evgeni Plushenko won the silver medal. Tim Goebel finished third, becoming the first American man to get a figure-skating medal in 10 years.
Earlier, Canada’s Catriona LeMay Doan won the gold medal in women’s 500-meter speedskating. German skaters Monique Garbrecht-Enfeldt and Sabine Volker took the silver and the bronze.
Johann Muehlegg, a German who skis for Spain, won the gold medal in the men’s cross-country skiing pursuit competition. Two silver medals were awarded, to Norwegian skiiers Thomas Alsgaard and Frode Estil, after a photo-finish tie for second place.
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.
