I remember both perfomances, and was naturally rooting for Nancy, being from Massachusetts and considering that she had rehabbed herself as well. I was stunned when the judges gave the Gold to Oksana. I do agree that there was a wave of sympathy for Nancy, but her skating was wonderful anyway.
The ripples of sympathy for Nancy were nothing compared to the tsunami of worship for Oksana because of her "compelling life story" of overcoming such harsh adversity in her childhood and being raised by her skating coach, etc. There have probably been two or three Lifetime Movie Channel movies about her life before and up to winning the gold, and then another two or three about her post-olympic life of drug abuse and recovery.