This story didn't start with the Canadians.
On February 9, the French sports newspaper L'Équipe broke the story of an alleged judging conspiracy between the USA and Russia to trade high votes on two events (in which the USA and Russia wound up winning gold, with the USA giving high scores to the Russian skaters and the Russians giving high scores to the USA skaters).
The Canadians are particularly sensitive to voting conspiracies in judging Olympics ice skating.
In 2002, the French and Russian judges conspired to swap votes. The results cost the Canadian team a gold medal. The problem was that the Canadians so clearly deserved the gold that an international skating an official was waiting for the French judge at her hotel when she returned from the event.
The IOC became involved, as did the International Skating Union. The Canadian skater's medals were upgraded from silver to gold and for the first time in Olympic history, an awards ceremony was repeated, and both the Russians and Canadians received gold medals.
The longer story includes suspension of two judges and a Russian mobster.
Cheating happens. I'm not saying it did in this case, but a French newspaper said the fix was in over a week ago.
The fix, if it existed, may not have been necessary because the Americans skated so well.
“In 2002, the French and Russian judges conspired to swap votes. The results cost the Canadian team a gold medal. The problem was that the Canadians so clearly deserved the gold that an international skating an official was waiting for the French judge at her hotel when she returned from the event.”
I remember that event and it’s why I generally dislike all the “judged events”. Give me a timed or a man-to-man event any day. Even Olympic boxing can be a joke.