Salt Lake City Olympics figure skating scandal
IOC says results could be changed MANCHESTER, England (AP) – IOC president Jacques Rogge said changing the figure skating medals from the Salt Lake City Olympics “is definitely not impossible” if the U.S. case against a reputed Russian mobster proves he fixed the judging.
Rogge said on Saturday that the International Olympic Committee needs more information in the case against Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, accused of arranging a vote-swapping deal between judges in the pairs and ice dancing, before making a decision.
“We do not rule out anything, it will depend on what we find,” Rogge said in Manchester, England, at the Commonwealth Games. “A rewriting of the results is definitely not impossible.
“We first have to watch and see what really comes out. We want the full truth. Is it a clear case of corruption? We don’t know. Is a telephone call enough to be considered as a corruption case?”
Rogge said athletes should not be punished for the “wrongdoing of some judges,” but “the information that we have received is too much to be ignored.”
“Scrapping events or sports at the Olympic Games, I think that would be a wrong measure,” he said.
IOC vice president Thomas Bach agreed that nothing should be ruled out, “not even the annulment of the Olympic results.”
Rogge was not happy to have the IOC linked with organized crime.
“We don’t like people like this gentleman to be involved in sport,” Rogge said. “This is one of the reasons why the IOC has always insisted on a ban on gambling on Olympic events because then you attract these kinds of possibilities.”
The biggest judging scandal in Olympic history already has resulted in duplicate gold medals awarded to Canadian pairs team Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, who initially were judged second to Russian pair Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze.
In Italy, Tokhtakhounov called the charges against him a “farce,” contending he doesn’t even follow ice skating. Elsewhere, outraged figure skaters threatened to sue over media coverage of the investigation.
It all made for another hectic day in the scandal-marred world of figure skating, facing its biggest brouhaha since the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan affair before the 1994 Winter Games.
Tokhtakhounov was arrested Wednesday in Italy and faces extradition to the United States. U.S. prosecutors say he plotted for a French judge to vote for the Russian pairs team, and a Russian judge to vote in turn for the French ice dancing team. Both teams won.
Much of the case is based on phone conversations recorded during an investigation into the mob, and Italian police say Tokhtakhounov indicated in those conversations that six judges could be involved.
U.S. prosecutors say a “co-conspirator” connected with the Russian Skating Federation did the legwork after being contacted by Tokhtakhounov. The co-conspirator was not named in the complaint filed in New York, nor were any of the judges or other people who might have been involved in the scheme.
After meeting Tokhtakhounov in a Venice jail, lawyer Luca Saldarelli said his client told him he worked “as an intermediary in international affairs” and was innocent.
“He’s absolutely surprised. He doesn’t know anything about the Salt Lake City Olympic Games,” said Saldarelli, who indicated earlier his client would fight extradition. “He’s not even a fan of figure skating.”
Saldarelli said on Saturday that a preliminary hearing to validate his client’s arrest under separate Italian charges would be held Tuesday at the Venice jail. Tokhtakhounov will likely be held in Venice throughout the traditional Italian vacation period of August, with the extradition process beginning sometime thereafter.
The lawyer also said Tokhtakhounov’s wife left for Moscow on Friday, and his daughter would be going later this week.
In France, Didier Gailhaguet, the suspended head of the French skating federation, denied having any contact with Tokhtakhounov “before, during or after” the Olympics.
But he said the federation met with him in the spring of 2000, at Tokhtakhounov’s request, about a possible partnership “for the benefit of a Paris ice hockey club.”
The skating at Salt Lake City was marred when 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 but still was suspended, as was Gailhaguet. Le Gougne has said she doesn’t know Tokhtakhounov.
As a result, duplicate gold medals were awarded to the Canadian pairs team that finished second to Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze.
Later, France’s Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat won gold in ice dancing. Investigators say the winning female ice dancer – presumably Anissina, although she is not named in court papers – spoke to Tokhtakhounov on the phone after the event.
The Russian team and Anissina threatened on Friday to take legal action for what they called “defamation” against them in the case.
Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze said they would sue U.S. TV networks – though they didn’t say which ones – for showing their pictures in connection with the case.
Anissina also threatened action, though she didn’t specify what kind.
“I categorically denounce all the slanderous, unjust, and disgraceful allegations that were made against me after the arrest of Mr. Tokhtakhounov,” Anissina said in a statement released by the French Skating Federation.