French skating judge takes credit for new scoring
PARIS -- After all the anguish that left her wondering if she even wanted to live, the French judge at the center of the skating scandal at the Salt Lake City Olympics finally feels vindicated.
"I have paid. I had periods of terrible suffering. It's true that I contemplated suicide," Marie-Reine Le Gougne told The Associated Press. "But it's not in vain if it helps the world of skating evolve, if it undergoes a revolution."
The dispute in the pairs competition shook the 2002 Winter Games and forced the International Skating Union to overhaul the way marks are awarded to skaters.
A new scoring system was implemented in June 2004, relying on accumulation of points for executing maneuvers rather than the maximum mark award used for more than a century.
"World skating has paid me homage," Le Gougne said. "I saw it at the Trophee Bompard [in November] when the judges came to see me and said: 'Marie-Reine, the new scoring system is so great, thank you Marie-Reine because without you there would not have been a new scoring system."'
The system replaces the famed 6.0 score and is based on points for jumps, spins, footwork and artistic elements.
At Salt Lake City, the International Olympic Committee pressured the ISU into awarding a second pairs gold medal.
Le Gougne awarded Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze a 5.9 in the free program, and gave Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier 5.8. Other judges were evenly split -- so Le Gougne's vote meant the Russians took the gold.
At a post-competition review by judges, a teary Le Gougne said she had been under pressure from her federation's chief, Didier Gailhaguet, to vote for the Russian pair. A duplicate gold medal later was awarded to the Canadians.
Le Gougne, who now says she "voted honestly" for the Russian pair, later retracted her accusation against Gailhaguet, who responded by testifying against Le Gougne.
"He [Gailhaguet] made me out to be crazy, that I had been seeing a psychiatrist for two years, that I was not normal," Le Gougne said. "He dragged me through the mud. His statement to the committee was an attack on my private life."
Gailhaguet and Le Gougne were handed three-year bans from the ISU following a hearing in April 2002.
Le Gougne feels she was a scapegoat.
"The ISU had only one option, to justify the awarding of the second gold medal," she said. "So, obviously, the poor French judge was going to get it with both barrels. I was a lightweight ... politically, on a sporting level, ethically, morally, financially."
Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press
