Russian Olympic and skating officials in Utah are saying pressure from American media played too large a role in the International Olympic Committee's decision Friday to award an additional gold medal in pairs figure skating to Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier.
Meanwhile, at Canada Olympic Lodge there were hugs and tears and cheers ? and not just because Canada had a won another gold medal.
"The most important part of this was the way Jamie and David handled themselves," beamed Tanya Dubnicoff of Calgary, sitting in front of a big-screen TV at Canada's official reception center on Salt Lake City's Main Street.
The mood was more somber among the Russians as the IOC sought, by awarding dual gold medals, to end five days of controversy following the possible collusion of figure skating judges.
"I do not want to criticize the IOC's decision," said Alexander Kazlovsky, vice president of the Russian Olympic Committee. But "American mass media, masquerading as public opinion, put a tremendous amount of pressure on the issue. This is incorrect," he said.
In a press conference Friday, IOC President Jacque Rogge insisted that public and media pressure only affected the speed of the deliberation and not the decision itself.
The Russians doubt that.
Russian Figure Skating Federation President Alexander Piseev said he thought the double-gold decision was almost entirely a product of media pressure.
While neither IOC officials nor the media have openly accused the Russians of any participation in the alleged vote fixing, many of the Russian officials feel they have been unfairly portrayed in the scandal.
Kazlovsky also said he believed the press has been very biased. "We have not had as much access to American or Canadian mass media," Kazlovsky said. The lack of balance in coverage has led to a lopsided view of what really is popular opinion regarding the incident, Kazlovsky said.
He believes the IOC's decision will have a negative effect on figure skating.
Now anytime an athlete believes he or she should have won "they can start a campaign," he said. "Personally I think this sets a very bad precedent."
Contributing: Maria Titze
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