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American Morning

Calls for Independent Review of Judging That Gave Russians Gold in Pairs Figure Skating

Aired February 14, 2002 - 08:04   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: Up front this morning, it is the biggest scandal of the Olympic Games, the pairs skating controversy with charges of collusion. And there are now calls for an independent review of the judging that gave the Russians a gold medal in Pairs Figure Skating and left the Canadians holding the silver.

Well, now all eyes will be on those same judges Friday night, when they judge the Ice Dancing event. A medal on that competition was rumored to be the trade for Monday's disputed vote.

Carol Lin joins us now from Salt Lake City with more on all that. What a mess -- good morning, Carol.

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, good morning, Paula. Can you imagine being the French ice dancing pair? I mean, you can't win for losing. If they win, everybody is going to think that a deal was cut in the pairs contest. If they lose, everybody is going to think a deal was cut in the pairs contest, or that there was unfair bias by the International Skating Union because of all of the pressure.

We don't know much about the judging panel, but here is what we do know. We know that it's been reported that the United States, Canada and France, perhaps that controversial French judge from the pairs contest, will not be represented on the panel. At the same time, we are hearing that it's the very same panel that judged the pairs contest that will be judging Friday night. So that's going to be an exciting one, because the ISU is not actually officially meeting in their internal investigation until Monday.

ZAHN: (AUDIO GAP) to be the reaction there, Carol?

LIN: I'm sorry? I didn't hear that, Paula.

ZAHN: What continues to be the reaction, and what is it exactly the Canadians have to prove?

LIN: Yes, that's a really tough one. They have finally filed their formal appeal with the International Skating Union for an investigation as to what happened. And according to IOC Olympic historian, it's almost an impossible standard that they've got to meet.

ZAHN: All right. I know there's a little time lag here. I thought you were leading to something about the French official.

LIN: That's right. I thought we had...

ZAHN: Let's...

LIN: I'm sorry. I thought we had an interview with Bill Mallon (ph), but he basically said they have got to have a huge smoking gun. They have got to either have videotape of collusion or an audiocassette, like they had back in 1998. Or he says a judge literally has to come forward and confess, yes, I decided ahead of time in the pairs competition that the Russians would get the gold. We had a deal. And he said that is so unlikely to happen. But the Canadians feel like they have got something, Paula, because that's why they filed the appeal.

ZAHN: All right. Carol, I want to move you along to another story that was just released this morning, a disturbing report from the FBI. The FBI now issuing an alert about a mystery man who bought some teddy bears, and now they are warning some 350 law enforcement agencies in the southwest in Salt Lake City about this guy. What do we know about this warning?

LIN: Well, we do know that it did go out, especially to the law enforcement agencies here in Salt Lake City. Everybody has been on high alert, but let me tell you, or at least show you what some of the precautions are. When you are going into the Olympic perimeter and in particular to the Olympic venue -- I borrowed this backpack actually from our security guard downstairs, Tiffany. This is about the size that they are going to allow into the venue. The teddy bear that you're talking about is much larger. And anything going into the venue, including sodas, hamburgers, a wad of gum is inspected. So anything sold within the venues has been thoroughly searched by National Guardsmen, who are specifically assigned to that duty.

ZAHN: So how seriously are they taking this specific warning, given, you know, how firm the restrictions are?

LIN: You know what? They are taking it very seriously. However, you know, we were just talking this morning amongst ourselves. There is a tradition of throwing teddy bears onto the ice after an ice skating competition. But likely anything that is used, whether it's flowers or little teddy bears or little symbols like that, are going to be sold inside the Olympic venues, and they are going to be checked out.

It is being taken very seriously. Just to get to the hotel to do an interview yesterday, it's just behind us, we had to go through five security checkpoints, and we had to travel -- it took us about 20 minutes to go to a building that I can see from my (UNINTELLIGIBLE) position right here.

ZAHN: Wow! Well, for good reason, I guess.

LIN: Yes. Yes, pretty tight.

ZAHN: Thanks, Carol -- see you in a little bit. LIN: Sure.

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