Posted on 02/22/2002 5:39:41 PM PST by GeneD
SALT LAKE CITY -- A Russian protest seeking a duplicate gold medal for Irina Slutskaya in women's figure skating was rejected Friday by the International Skating Union.
"The protest has been denied," ISU spokeswoman Aline Busset said.
She said details would be included in an official statement released later in the day.
Slutskaya appeared shocked when the gold medal went to America's Sarah Hughes on Thursday night. The Russian skating federation quickly protested, seeking a duplicate gold just as was awarded to Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier in the pairs.
Slutskaya got her highest marks from judges from Russia, Slovakia and Bulgaria, while the Canadian and American judges went for Hughes, who went from fourth to first by winning the free skate.
Earlier Friday, Viktor Mamotov, the head of the Russian delegation in Salt Lake City, said, "We filed the protest last night because we think the judging was biased. Canadian pairs skaters were awarded their gold medals. Now that subjective judging harmed us, we want the same for Slutskaya."
Well, now...could it be because Sarah Hughes skated perfectly and Irina didn't?? [/sarcasm off]
Ice Dancing: Clear evidence of cheating and collusion, gave the superior Canadian team a co-gold medal.
Ice skating: The guy who got the silver was lucky. The American should have got it. Well, "paying dues" has some stature in that world. And what about Sarah Hughes? She clearly and by far was the best skater. The scandal is that the Russian's marks for technical were so high. That was ridiculous. Actually Sahsa Cohen may have a gripe against the Russian and Kwan.
Cross-country: the lady's test came positive. I do believe that they should have said so earlier so they could have replaced her. But what would this be, a Nowegian plot?
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And the Russians see the awarding of the 2nd gold medal as bias with the pairs skating, what they don't say is that the French judge is suspected of cheating and fixing her marks. They're only seeing what they want to see.
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