LAUSANNE, Switzerland — The International Skating Union has asked its member federations to investigate whether any officials or athletes had links to a conspiracy to fix the results at the Olympics.
In an urgent letter to all 73 national skating associations worldwide, the ISU said Tuesday they should establish whether "any individual under the jurisdiction of your federation has any knowledge of misconduct of any person or persons acting in an official capacity for your federation, for the ISU, or for any other ISU member."
The world governing body, previously criticized for doing too little to investigate corruption allegations, also said that if "any skating person has met, or been involved with, or knows of others that have been involved with . . . Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, that information should be reported."
Two weeks ago, U.S. authorities charged alleged Tokhtakhounov, a Russian mobster, with arranging a vote-swapping deal between French and Russian judges in pairs and ice dancing at last February's Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
Prosecutors contend Tokhtakhounov cut a deal to obtain a visa to return to France. Italian police, who arrested Tokhtakhounov at a resort and are holding him in a Venice jail, said he might have contacted up to six judges to help secure a gold medal for the Russians in the pairs competition in exchange for a victory by the French ice dancing team.
Both teams won. However, French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne said the day after the pairs event that she had been pressured to vote for the Russians. She later recanted.
As a result, duplicate gold medals were awarded to Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, the Canadians who finished second to Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze.
Le Gougne and French Skating Federation President Didier Gailhaguet were suspended from the International Skating Union for three years and banned from the 2006 Winter Games. Le Gougne has said she doesn't know Tokhtakhounov.
The ISU said it had provided U.S. justice authorities with the complete files of the disciplinary inquiry against Le Gougne and Gailhaguet.
"Although the name Alimzhan Tokhtakounov is not mentioned in the hundreds of pages of documents and testimony, the U.S. investigators may find the information to be of interest," it said.
The ISU also said its governing council would meet in Geneva in October to consider new ethical guidelines.