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American Morning
Olympic Skating Gets New Judging System
Aired February 19, 2002 - 07:05 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.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Up front this morning, a total revolution at the Olympics. That's how ISU President Ottavio Cinquanta describes the new judging system that Olympic officials will now use. They claim it will prevent another scandal like the one that erupted over last week's pairs skating competition. More judges and an entirely new point system are some of the features described at yesterday's news conference.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OTTAVIO CINQUANTA, PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL SKATING UNION: Instead of nine judges, there will be 14 judges. The 14 judges will be seated at the rink board and the sophisticated sealed, secret computerized system will practically assign to seven of the 14 seats the power, the role to form the result.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAFFERTY: You may want to take notes. We'll have a quiz later.
President Cinquanta says the new rules will eliminate bloc voting. But is it going to restore confidence in the sport?
CNN's Carol Lin is in Salt Lake City now and joins us with more -- good morning.
CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Jack.
Yes, there's still controversy, still conflicting stories about exactly what happened at that pairs competition. The French judge, Marie-Reine Le Gougne, may be saying now that she voted her conscience. But according to ISU members in several newspapers quoted today, ISU members, the International Skating Union, say that they heard Marie-Reine Le Gougne flat out say that she voted in a deal, that it was first place for the Russians in the pairs competition in order for the French to get first place in last night's ice dancing competition.
Now, the internal assessment by the International Skating Union is raising allegations that it was the French Skating Federation, the French delegation that pressured the French judge. Well, last night on CNN, the head of that French Skating Federation denied the charge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DIDIER GAILHAGUET, PRESIDENT, FRENCH SKATING FEDERATION: Why, but why would I try to push more for the Russian than for the Canadians, considering we have no French athletes in the mettle. That makes me really laugh. And concerning the allegation that could have been made through a transfer on another discipline, this is such an easy allegation that I am really shocked.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIN: Denials all around. But, Jack, let me give you some perspective on the changes to the rules of judging.
Despite these charges and counter charges, the new system, yes, it does increase the number of judges. Yes, it does, it does involve a computer so that it randomly selects which judges' votes are finally counted. What it doesn't change, however, is that the pool of judges that this computer will select from, these judges will still be chosen by the individual countries' sports federations. So you're still going to have a political factor in who sits on that panel to judge.
CAFFERTY: Plus, it just occurs to me, Carol, you know, I'm sure they won it outright, but wouldn't it have been better for appearances sake if somebody other than the French had won the gold medal in the ice dancing last night? It seems to me that was the quid pro quo going back to this whole thing in the beginning, was it not?
LIN: You know, what a shame for these two to win the gold under these circumstances. I don't know if you saw the competition, Jack, but they were amazing. And I'm certainly no expert in figure skating, but you've got to wonder who is these days. Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat won first in the gold. It is the first gold since 1932 for France. And their skating performance was virtually flawless. But then again, in the competition last night, you know, you had several pair skaters fall, including the Canadians, who were slated, actually, to win a medal. But they didn't even place because Shae-Lynn Bourne fell in the first round.
You have a first time also for the Russians in this competition. It is the first time that they didn't win the gold since 1984 and it is the first time Italy has ever won a medal in figure skating.
CAFFERTY: All right, interesting stuff, Carol. Thanks. Appreciate the report. We'll talk to you again a bit later.
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