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American Morning

The Big Question: Will the Russians Pull Out of the Olympics?

Aired February 22, 2002 - 09:05   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: Adding to the growing number of countries protesting the judging so far this year, Russia is now threatening to pull all of its athletes out of the Winter Games. The Big Question this morning, will they do it. Will they actually pull out of the Olympics? Still angry over the figure skating controversy, the Russians now have a laundry list of recent complaints about judges and referees.

CNN's Carol Lin is in Salt Lake City to bring us up-to-date on that, and now even the Russian president is sort of going along with this line, that these Games were fixed in some situations.

CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Good morning.

Vladimir Putin saying that he is monitoring events very closely here, putting pressure on the International Olympic Committee to address, as you said, a list of complaints. And it all started with the pair skating competition way back when they issued the double gold to the Canadians, and the Russian judges were criticized, and then it moved on to officiating in men's hockey.

And then this was the flash point yesterday. I think you have a picture of young woman. Her name is Larissa Lazutina (ph). She was the Russian gold medal contender in cross-country skiing yesterday. She was disqualified for some unusual blood tests. A high level of hemoglobin that may indicate that she had been doping before the competition to help her endurance.

The Russians came out last night, and said, that's it, this is a North American bias, they are calling the judging here malicious, and they are saying that the International Olympic Committee has to address their complaints within 24 hours. And, Paula, that means that they need to have an answer from the IOC about these complaints right before the big men's hockey game today, the showdown between the United States and Russia, which of course, as you know, it's the 22nd anniversary to the date of the "miracle on ice" game. There's a lot of anticipation for this and a lot of pressure.

So far, Paula, the Russians starting to back off on that deadline, because it's going to be a really close game, and I think the Russians feel like they might be able to pull it off for a medal here.

ZAHN: So, Carol, there is no sense that they simply just don't want to skate because they're afraid they're going to lose. This is a highly-contested battle here?

LIN: Right. And you know what? You raise a really interesting point. You were in Lillehammer when the Russians actually did pretty well. I mean, they got, what 24 medals there, they got 18 in Nagano in 1998. They are only up to 14 at this Winter Games, and there is no way that they are going to be able to pull out, or even match their previous victories.

So I don't know, do you think it's sour grapes? Do you think they are just afraid of...

ZAHN: I don't know, but I think the fact that President Putin now is suggesting that maybe there's been some shenanigan played is pretty serious stuff.

LIN: Yes, and there has been a lot of pressure on the Russian judges. I mean, if you watch the American media, which we do, there's been criticism of, oh, well, the former Soviet countries always vote as a bloc, and raising all kinds of questions on their ethics and deal-making behind the scenes.

But today, I'm really hoping that the men's hockey game does go forward, because there's this really unusual matching. It turns out that the Russian coach actually played in the "miracle on ice" game and competed against the American coach, Herb Brooks. So a little bit of personal match there.

ZAHN: A lot of scores to settle this evening.

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