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American Morning

Discussion with Judge of U.S. National Ice Skating Competitions

Aired February 14, 2002 - 08:10   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: Another story altogether. And joining us now to talk about the Olympic skating scandal, Dennis Sveum, a judge of the U.S. national ice skating competitions and a former world ice dancing champion himself. He joins us from St. Louis.

Welcome, good to have you with us Dennis.

DENNIS SVEUM, NATIONAL ICE SKATING JUDGE: Good morning.

ZAHN: Dennis, let's talk for -- about for a moment about this highly unusual move. The International Olympic Committee last night issuing a very strong warning to the International Skating Union about quickly settling this controversy. What do you think will bring closure to this? Giving the Canadians a duplicate gold?

SVEUM: I don't know if changing the outcome of the competition would make anybody happy. I know David was saying on the television yesterday that he didn't particularly want the gold after all the controversy. You know, one thing I wanted to say was the judges from the very beginning, when they first started judging, they're prompted and coached to never put a mark down unless they can justify that mark. And I think probably the judges -- the majority of the judges gave the first mark to the Canadian skaters, but there's many of the -- many of the judges decided that they wanted to see a beautiful line. And I know the European judges are used to seeing that beautiful line and the costuming and this type of thing.

And so they gave the second mark -- the majority of them gave the second mark to the Russian skaters. This is -- this is well known. There are two marks. There's the artistic mark and there is the presentation mark. And if...

ZAHN: Well let's take -- for a moment, take into account the difficulty of the routine. Everybody has acknowledged that the Russian's routine was much tougher than the Canadians', but we also know that the Russians made some small mistakes, while the Canadian pair, in most judges' estimates, skated flawlessly.

SVEUM: Yes, they did skate flawlessly. It's a personal feeling. That second mark, that second presentation mark, is a personal feeling. To watch it at home on television, you just -- you do not get the excitement. You can't see the speed that the person is skating. You don't get the excitement of the office. It's just a totally different thing watching it on television than it is to actually being there.

ZAHN: Now what is adding to the heat in this story is the fact that the head of the French Olympic team said last night that a French figure skating judge was, "pressured to act in a certain way." Here is more of what she said. "Some people close to the judge have acted badly and have put someone who is honest and upright but emotionally fragile under pressure...she is a fragile person and I think she has been somewhat manipulated." How significant of a rap is this?

SVEUM: I feel that if she was pressured into judging a certain way, then I think that's very wrong and it does hurt her sport. ISU could take a little bit more responsibility and they could suspend that judge if they do find that she was coerced into putting a mark down that she did not feel that she should be marked -- put the mark down. I think the judge should be suspended. It was a problem that we had the last Olympics, where the judges were shown that they were tapping their foot on the podium. Those judges were slapped on the hand and sent on their way, and the very next competition they were back in judging the same -- same way that they had before.

I think perhaps the ISU should take a stronger stand towards improprieties and perhaps suspend those judges and not allow them to -- to judge at that level until after they've gone through a few more judges schools.

ZAHN: All right. Dennis, before we let you go. Who do you think deserved the gold?

SVEUM: I personally feel that the Canadians were better technically. And I'd probably, if I was on the panel, I would have given them the first place.

ZAHN: And they still may end up with that duplicate gold. That seems to be the compromise the Canadian folks want. Dennis Sveum, thank you very much for joining us this morning. We appreciate your insights.

SVEUM: Thank you, Paula.

ZAHN: Take care.

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