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American Morning

Reporter, Editor Discuss Olympic Skating Controversies

Aired February 15, 2002 - 08:05   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, back on the skating front. As the sun comes up over Salt Lake City, a dark cloud still hangs over the Olympics, the controversy over Monday's award of the gold in Pairs Skating. The International Skating Union will meet again Monday for -- quote -- "an internal assessment of the situation." They are not calling it an investigation. And among the things the group will consider, the possibility that a French skating judge may have been pressured into casting her gold medal vote for the Russians.

Controversy though is nothing new to the world of figure skating, and as Carol Lin tells us, the next generation of skaters is being well trained on how to get a fair shake in a faulty system.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Katie Mulvaney learned to skate when she was five. Last year at 14, she learned to work the system, competing at the Junior National Championship.

KATIE MULVANEY, SKATER: The judges kind of watch your practice sessions, and I just show off like crazy. And I just show everything, every move, everything that I am great at, and I just show everything.

LIN (on camera): Because what you trying to do with the judges?

MULVANEY: Trying to catch their attention and say, look at me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You want to feel the top of the judge -- hit the top.

LIN (voice-over): Chris Sherrard (ph) is Katie's coach.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You want them to start watching you right way and get on you and thinking, oh, that's one to watch. That one looks good. You know, especially if you -- if they don't know you.

LIN (voice-over): Because if the judges don't know you, Katie says you will lose.

MULVANEY: The judges pick who they want to win ahead before you even skate.

LIN (on camera): During the warm ups? MULVANEY: Right. So that's -- it is rigged in some way.

LIN (voice-over): How does Katie know? She has been competing for eight years, more than half her life. She has lost some competitions she thought she should have won, and she has been given breaks even when she skated badly.

Allegations that 2002 Olympic judges conspired did not shock her. The deck is stacked. You just don't know for whom. Young skaters are taught to feel out the judges for every edge.

(on camera): Do the skaters try to work it a little bit with the judges?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I think that a smart skater would.

LIN (voice-over): Ida Tatiyoka (ph) has judged figure skating for 50 years, including the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. She says charm and bravado don't influence her, but judges she has met are different.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are talking to each other, and so what are they talking about?

MULVANEY: I'm going to fly out.

LIN (on camera): Does it kind of break your heart, though, that you have got to at some point tell the most talented kid that the judging isn't always going to be fair?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I still think that life is a lot like that. If it happens, then you deal with it.

LIN (voice-over): Katie deals with it by focusing on Olympic gold in 2006. If judging reforms come out of the 2002 Games, she hopes skill, not luck, will determine her fate.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Katie's coach tells us that 1 in 50,000 kids who take up skating in the United States will have a chance to make it to the Olympics, Paula. So by the time they get there, it means everything to them to know that they have been judged on their performance and not on the politics.

ZAHN: Yes, but whoever knew the world of schmoozing would play in that whole process.

LIN: Yes.

ZAHN: That was really a fascinating report. Describe to us what tone this controversy is taking on among the figure skaters that still have to compete at the Olympics.

LIN: Oh, yes, everybody is so nervous, Paula, because who knows how the judging is going to go today. Some people -- some of the athletes are speculating that it will be more fair. And we talked with the U.S. pairs skaters just yesterday, and they were saying that the mood inside the village is very tense and very hushed. There is a code of conduct amongst the figure skaters, as they say that they try not to talk about this, because so many of the athletes are still waiting for their competitions to come up.

At today's ice dancing competition, many people are saying -- a lot of the athletes are saying they are afraid that the crowd is going to be booing and hissing and cheering. That it's going to be more like a wrestling match scene than something more dignified for ice dancing, because of this judging controversy, and that's not fair to them athletes who are still waiting to compete.

ZAHN: No, it certainly isn't. Carol Lin, thank you so much for that update. We are going to continue to follow this in our next segment. The big question, of course, now is: Is the Olympic judging system due for an overhaul?

Well, in this morning's "Washington Post," a former Russian medalist, who is now a U.S. coach, Alexander Zhulin, had this to say about the judging. "All federations are involved, not only the Russians. The Canadians are involved. The French are involved. The Italians are involved. Everybody is trying to bring their couples, their skaters into first place. Everybody is trying to keep the votes for their own country. That's corruption. It's so dirty."

How valid is this charge? Well, joining us now to discuss it from Salt Lake City, Gilles Van Kote, a reporter from the French newspaper, "La Monde," and from Toronto, Steve Tustin, sports editor for the "Toronto Star" -- good morning, gentlemen, glad to have both of you with us this morning.

STEVE TUSTIN, SPORTS EDITOR, "TORONTO STAR": Good morning, Paula.

ZAHN: So, Steve, do you buy what Mr. Zhulin says? Is the fix in, in all of these competitions?

TUSTIN: Well, I think, Paula, if you look back at the history of figure skating, it used to be called fancy skating back on the 19th century, even back in the 1860s, 1870s, 1890s, this sport was having this problem. Referees back then used to take the judges' decisions and throw them in the fire at the end of the skating meet, so that no one would know what the real score was. They have had this problem forever. It's still ongoing.

Obviously there is bullying still going on of judges. A lot of people point the finger at Russia as being the bully with a lot of its former Soviet allies or countries that it's giving aid to, trying to exact favors from them. That's one theory. But certainly, there is cheating going on, particularly in ice dancing. I think a lot of people are shocked now. They shouldn't be, but they are shocked that the problems that ice dancing seem to have now have reared its head in pairs and possibly, who knows, in singles. But this is a problem that this sport has faced ever since it was born. ZAHN: So let's talk a little bit about how defensive the Russian pair dancers have been. They were on "LARRY KING" last night. Here is what they had to say about their gold medal win -- let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YELENA BEREZHNAYA, OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: You know, somebody has to win, somebody has to lose, and that's rules. I don't know and just one gold medal have -- or like we have just one gold medal, that's it. And if you can, I don't know, accept that, you aren't strong enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Well, Gilles, what about that? Because you now have the Russian coach coming out and saying that the only reason people are reacting to this is because it's primarily a North American audience that's watching, and they're just being partisan.

GILLES VAN KOTE, REPORTER, "LA MONDE": Some of the people here, you know, the French delegation are saying the same thing. What happened here in Salt Lake City happened last year in Vancouver, but the Canadian pair has won the competition, and nobody talked about judging and scandal. So we think there is a big media effort with North American media making pressure on the Federation of the IOC.

There is some arrangement between the judges. It's usual in ice skating. Everybody knows that. But what happened here happened last year. It happened the day before -- the years before. It's a problem, you know. There is a problem with judging in ice skating. We have to change that, but it's a few.

ZAHN: So, Gilles and Steve, I mean, you both have made it clear that this process is corrupt, and that we should have known about it for some time and maybe shouldn't be so particularly surprised about what happened earlier this week. Do you have any faith, Steve, that rules can be changed that will address this problem?

TUSTIN: Do you know, Paula, I don't. I think they will clean up their act a little bit, and I think now that the public and the media are watching, it's going to be very interesting in the ice dance tonight. You know, more people are going to watch. People who would never watching ice dancing are going to tune in tonight to watch for the first time, just to see that everything is on the up and up.

They have tried to clean this up, but it's very hard. There is an inherent problem in judging in a sport where there is judging involved, because there are people involved, and there is going to be favors given, friendships and so on. Boxing has the same problem. Any sport where there is judging and there are people involved and they are all in the same little community, you're going to have this problem. And it's a really tough thing.

I think there should -- needs to be better reviewing of the judges themselves and of their performances. I think that's one thing that has to be done. But it's a very serious problem, and it's going to be very difficult to fix. ZAHN: Gilles, final word on how viewers should be looking at this issue. If everybody kind of agrees that the scoring has no credibility at all, how cynical should we be about these competitions?

VAN KOTE: About the ice dancing? Paula, I guess yesterday, a French skater told when you are skating, you know it's like that. If you want another thing to be like that, change the sport. So we hope the ice dancing competition will be fair. But we know it's a very difficult sport to judge, and everything can happen.

ZAHN: Well, I know you're going to be following ice dancing closely tonight, gentlemen. Many of us will be watching that as well and watching the judges in particular, perhaps even more than the skaters themselves. Gilles Van Kote, Steve Tustin, thank you very much for your insights this morning.

TUSTIN: Thank you, Paula.

ZAHN: Enjoy the games.

VAN KOTE: Thank you.

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