SALT LAKE CITY – Last Monday night the public and spectators were shocked when the gold in Olympic figure skating went to Russia’s Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze by a one-judge margin. The whole world knows that Canada’s Jamie Sale and David Pelletier had outskated the Russians.
“Throw triple loop, and the gold is theirs,” yelled the NBC’s commentator, Scott Hamilton, who in 1984 won Olympic gold medal. When the announcement came that the Russians had won, Hamilton was adamant that it was a big mistake.
”My heart breaks,” said another TV commentator right before the medals ceremony, “and I’m embarrassed for our sport right now.” Many fans booed when the scoreboard showed the Russian pair had edged the Canadians.
The Canadian pair, Jamie Sale and David Pelletier were superb. Their 4 1/2 -minute routine crashed decades of Russian domination in figure skating.
Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze know very well that the gold medals presented to them belong to the Canadian pair — Jamie Sale and David Pelletier.
German, Japanese, Canadian and American judges placed Salé and Pelletier first, while judges from Russia, China, France, Poland, and Ukraine voted for the Russians; and they were wrong. How something like this could happen?
Improper judging and deal-making must stop and corrupt judges must be removed from the Olympic movement.
