Olympic officials have awarded the Canadian figure skating duo a gold medal, just days after the Russian team claimed top-prize in a heavily disputed decision.
The International Skating Union suggested Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier be awarded a gold prize, and the decision was finalized Friday just hours before the case was slated to be heard by an international arbitration panel.
Meanwhile, Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze will keep their gold medal - giving the event two winning teams.
The French judge, who reportedly said she was pressured to cast her vote for the Russians, has been suspended. The Russians have won the gold in skating pairs in every Olympics since 1964.
Locally, the decision is seen as a positive step.
“They did the correct thing,” said Kerry Monaco, president of the MSU Figure Skating Club.
The international studies and French senior, in her fourth year on the club, said the International Skating Union and the International Olympic Committee were wise to look into the issue and award two golds.
She said it wouldn’t have been smart to strip the Russians of their prize because four of the other eight judges still ranked them higher than the Canadians in the execution category.
“Without having a skate-off, there’s really no way to take the medal away,” she said.
The controversy stems from the Monday night performances, where the Russians performed a strong creative show - but had some poor execution.
The Canadians, in turn, delivered what many say was a mistake-free show in terms of execution, but was perhaps a little less creative than the Russians.
Execution is the category that determines the winners, but in event of a tie, judges turn to the creativity rankings. In Monday’s vote, Canada fell short on execution in a 5-4 tally. The French judge, who reports say was pressured to cast a winning vote for the Russians in exchange for a vote for France in ice dancing, gave the nod to Russia.
The controversy has given figure skating a black eye of sorts, and has led many to question whether a sport where results are completely subjective has a place in Olympic competition.
Monaco insists the sport is here to stay.
“I think this has definitely caused problems and negative images of figure skating,” she said. “But it’s not realistic to take it out. The sport brings in the most money and is the most watched.”
But the snafu could create hurdles for the future addition of sports where judges have free reign.
Monaco said ballroom dancing has gained support for Olympic entry, but with results being solely decided by judges, it might face an uphill battle to earn the right to compete.
“I don’t think they’re going to view any additions of subjective sports positively,” she said.
This is not the first time Olympic officials have awarded another gold medal controversially.
In 1993, the IOC gave a second gold medal in synchronized swimming from the Barcelona Games to Canada’s Sylvie Frechette. The IOC’s executive board concluded the Canadian was placed second due to judging error and should be awarded a gold medal.
That decision came after the Canadian swimming federation protested because a Brazilian judge wasn’t allowed to correct the original 8.7 she typed into her computer. A 9.7 would have give Frechette the gold outright. That decision also didn’t call for a stripping of the other gold; the United States’ Kristen Babb-Sprague kept her top prize.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
