What has thus far been the hottest controversy of the 2002 Winter Games ? the outcome of the pairs figure skating competition decided Monday ? will continue to simmer for at least several more days.
Ottavio Cinquanta, president of the International Skating Union, announced today that the organization is investigating a "specific allegation" regarding the event and that results of the internal assessment will be discussed by the ISU's council at a meeting Monday in Salt Lake City.
Cinquanta said the competition's referee, Ronald Pfenning, sent a letter to the ISU after Monday's event. Cinquanta would not disclose details of Pfenning's allegation. "There is some other allegations, but I feel it's the most important one because the referee is the boss," the ISU president said.
Cinquanta said there is nothing in the rules that says the judges' decision can't be overturned. "If I said it can't be changed, I would be a liar," he said.
Cries of collusion and unfairness in the judging of the Olympic pairs figure skating competition have raged since the event Monday.
On Tuesday, the uproar over the second-place nod to crowd favorites Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier echoed from Salt Lake streets to the far-flung reaches of the Internet.
As the United States rejoiced in victory ? gold and bronze medals were won by Americans Tuesday in speedskating ? Canadians howled about the loss of the figure skating gold Monday night.
Throughout Tuesday, television commentators rehashed the brouhaha, Web sites conducted popular-opinion polls and former Olympians rebuked the judging panel for giving Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze the gold medal despite flaws in their performance.
An unscientific Deseret News Internet poll showed 95 percent of the more than 400 respondents believe the Canadians should have won the gold. An NBC online poll, with more than 233,000 respondents, showed the same percentage.
Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze won the gold medal by the slimmest of margins ? a 5-to-4 split among judges.
Sally Rehorick, a figure skating judge and a top manager of the Canadian Olympic Association, said she accepted that Monday's results are final and agreed there is a certain degree of subjectivity in judging figure skating.
She frets that the credibility of the sport took a hit, however.
"When that decision came in, I decided I didn't want to judge again," Rehorick said. "I don't know whether it was embarrassment; I was horrified.
"Most decisions in figure skating are fair and are the right decisions," she said. "I do feel that subjectivity in our sport is not a bad thing as long as the subjectivity is based on expert opinion in the spirit of fair play." Scott Hamilton, the 1984 Olympic gold medalist and NBC figure skating commentator, was blunt in his comments on Monday's outcome.
"Elena and Anton ? honestly, they didn't skate their best," Hamilton said during a teleconference Tuesday. I think you have to look at the event and really look at what happened on that night. They didn't out-skate Jamie and David, and I can't find a reasonable argument on why Elena and Anton won."
Though the Russians' program was complex and their carriage stronger and faster across the ice, it was flawed. Berezhnaya was stiff-kneed on the landing of one throw triple jump, and Sikharulidze stepped out of a side-by-side double Axel.
On the other hand, Sale and Pelletier made no obvious errors during their performance of "Love Story." And though their program was 2 years old and perhaps slightly less challenging between jumps, it seemed to the majority of observers, including Hamilton, the pair had earned the gold medal.
ISU judges are considered the elite fleet of judges. They have moved up from their national organizations to the international level through regular testing, trial judging and actual judging experience. To earn the right to judge ISU and Olympic events, the judges are nominated by their national organization and approved by the ISU.
Prior to each event, the panel of judges is chosen from a pool of approved judges. No more than one judge per country may sit on any panel. Collusion is, of course, prohibited, as is "reputation judging" and prejudging an event.
If, as in Monday's case, there is a question about the judging, the ISU may ask judges to account for their marks. Judges who are deemed incompetent may be warned, demoted, suspended or removed from the approved list of judges. The details of the investigation are confidential.
However, rarely do the results of a competition change, even if mistakes or misconduct are discovered.
James Larkin, a national-level judge from Salt Lake City, declined to comment on the correctness of the panel's decision Monday. But he did tell the Deseret News he appreciated the "creativity" of the Russians' program ? the step sequences and other elements between the jumps.
And when faced with two admirable programs, Larkin said, "sometimes it gets right down to what did you enjoy the most. And in your opinion, what's the best."
The oldest scam in figure skating judging is vote trading, with judges agreeing to vote for a certain skater with the understanding they can call in the debt later.
Veteran coach Frank Carroll remains convinced American Linda Fratianne lost the gold medal in 1980 because judges traded votes along geopolitical lines. Annette Poetzsch of East Germany won instead, while Fratianne settled for silver.
And two pairs judges were suspended after TV footage at the 1999 world championships showed them glancing at each other and appearing to talk before marks were announced.
Contributing: Maria Titze, The Associated Press
E-MAIL: jnii@desnews.com