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American Morning

Are the Olympic Figure Skating Competitions Rigged?

Aired February 13, 2002 - 08:15   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, it continues to whirl and whirl here. The big question this morning, are the Olympic figure skating competitions rigged? Well the sports governing body, The International Skating Union, says it will conduct, "an internal assessment" of the judges scoring decision that gave Russia the gold and left two Canadian skaters in shock.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID PELLETIER, OLYMPIC SILVER MEDALIST: I'm not going to waste any energy on this. It's nice that, you know, some people think they have some dirty laundry to do, then they can do it. But it doesn't change the way I skated. It doesn't change the way I feel about what we did.

JAMIE SALE, OLYMPIC SILVER MEDALIST: Right now we're on a high, so we're just going -- we're going to go home with this and be happy. And we're really proud of what we've done here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: And Randy Gardner and Tai Babilonia are former world pairs figure skating champions themselves. They skated for the U.S. in the 1980 Olympics at Lake Placid, and they join us now on a chilly morning from Park City, Utah.

RANDY GARDNER, OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATER: Good morning.

ZAHN: Welcome to both of you. Good morning.

GARDNER: Thank you.

TAI BABILONIA, OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATER: Good morning.

ZAHN: So, Tai, do you think the Canadian team got ripped off?

BABILONIA: Oh, definitely. They were unbelievable the other night. And what I'm trying to do with everything that's going on is really think of -- of the positive and what the pairs team can take out of this. I mean, they had won the hearts of the world, as you obviously know, and they have this wonderful performance that they can take home with them. And sometimes winning the gold is not a bad thing.

GARDNER: The silver you mean.

BABILONIA: I'm sorry, the silver. But they won the gold in everyone's hearts. So I'm just trying to bring -- you know to find the positive in all of this. There now has been a can of worms that's been opened with the judging, as you know. So I think you're going to see some major changes. It's not over yet.

ZAHN: All right. Randy, we just heard from a man named Mark Lund (ph), who writes for the "International Figure Skating" magazine. And he blatantly said he believes, in this case, that there was a voting block and that a French judge basically gave the gold to the Russian pair in exchange for being promised a medal later in ice dancing.

GARDNER: In ice dancing, yeah.

ZAHN: Is this how the sport works?

GARDNER: Well, that's a good question. I'm really not sure. I do know Mark's (ph) pretty strong on this issue. I've heard him talk about this several times. I think they really have to review and figure out what they're doing with the judging in figure skating. Kind of -- I mean I think that even skaters like ourselves are confused about what happened with the pairs' (UNINTELLIGIBLE) program.

I think the public and us have to be sort of explained to why it went that way. I've always said they should do a split screen and go trick per trick and see -- you know the two throws that they did, it was -- they were both good. The Canadians were flawless. In their side-by-side jumps, Anton (ph) made a mistake, David did not. I think they have to explain why they went that way...

BABILONIA: Yes.

GARDNER: ... because we don't know, and there might be something -- I mean it could be very educational for everyone if they'd tell us.

BABILONIA: The audience felt really -- in fact, one of the spectators at the arena said, "I paid, you know, over $200 for this ticket and I felt cheated."

GARDNER: Yeah.

BABILONIA: That's not a good thing.

GARDNER: Yeah.

BABILONIA: That's really not a good thing.

ZAHN: But let's talk about some history here. I mean there have been allegations for years. Oops, I'll wait for that to pass by. OK, I think you can hear me now. There have been allegations for years that there has been an Eastern voting block among judges. Have you seen evidence of that, both of you?

GARDNER: I've seen them stick together. Yes, I have, more in the past. You know maybe in the 70s...

BABILONIA: And we thought it was getting better.

GARDNER: ... and 80s. Yeah, and we thought it was getting better. But you know the men last night -- the men's figure skating was very fair.

BABILONIA: It was.

GARDNER: Maybe they learned from the night before.

BABILONIA: Yes, they got better in one night.

ZAHN: Well that's what I wonder, how concerned you are now that the public has been exposed to some of the behind the scenes undercurrents in your profession, that perhaps they won't look at any scores in the future with any sense of credibility.

GARDNER: It's a concern. I'm very concerned. It tarnishes our sport a little bit. You know, as David Pelletier said the other night, he said, you know, the track and field had their doping problems, and now we have our very blatant judging problems. So we've got to fix it. They've got to step up, figure out what it is. I know some people have suggested that judges be paid for what they do because they're totally volunteer. I think they should have better education.

BABILONIA: Right.

GARDNER: I think they should use their screens on their judging seats to look at stuff. Give them more time to take their marks, whatever that is. Just really sort of analyze it more. I feel like they're always pushed to put the marks up on the scoreboard. So...

BABILONIA: Just be fair. It's time to be fair. It's not fair the skaters, it's not fair to the future of skating for the little skaters coming up who see this and say, "You know, mommy and daddy, even if I skate my best, I won't get the marks that I deserve." So that's not fair to the up and coming figure skaters.

ZAHN: We're looking at a picture of the Russian pair that obviously ultimately took the gold home. And as I understand it, this investigation, no matter how ugly it will get, will certainly not require that they give the medal back. But in the meantime, Randy, how ugly could things get here?

GARDNER: I'm sorry, how do what?

ZAHN: How ugly could this investigation get?

GARDNER: Oh, how ugly? Well it could get very ugly, I think. You've got a very powerful -- two countries that are very powerful in our world, in the IOC and the ISU, and that's Canada and Russia. And they're going to fight it out. But there's a lot of things, a lot of other judges in other countries that will piggyback on this. You know North America, the states, I'm sure are going to get involved -- the United States (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

It might be a long drawn out process and it may take a long time to correct. You know, no one's going to take the blame I'm sure. You've got Anton (UNINTELLIGIBLE) coach defending her kids, which she should. And then you've -- you know, it could be -- it might be an ugly battle.

ZAHN: Well I'll tell you one thing. We have never been more inundated with e-mail, mainly coming from people who watched the finals the other night and they're just outraged by the decision.

GARDNER: Yes.

ZAHN: Tai and Randy, we appreciate you coming by.

GARDNER: Thank you.

ZAHN: I guess there must be a part of you that probably in spite of this controversy wants to be back out there on the ice competing.

BABILONIA: Great. Thank you.

GARDNER: Thank you.

ZAHN: But we know you've moved on to your professional lives. Good to see both of you and thank you for getting up so early for us this morning.

BABILONIA: You're welcome.

GARDNER: You're welcome.

ZAHN: Go have some breakfast on us. Make sure the doughnuts are fresh.

BABILONIA: OK.

ZAHN: All right, Randy Gardner, Tai Babilonia.

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