Canadian skating pair awarded gold medal

AP Sports WriterSALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier were awarded an Olympic gold medal Friday, and a judge at the center of the disputed pairs competition was suspended for alleged misconduct.

The highly unusual decision allows the Russian pair to keep their gold medal, which was narrowly won during Monday night's free skate program. Sale and Pelletier are expected to receive the medal Thursday, before the start of the women's program.

The International Skating Union suspended French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne.

"She acted in a way that was not adequate to guarantee both pairs equal condition and this, I think, is enough," said Ottavio Cinquanta, head of the union. "We have declared misconduct."

He said the judge had been "submitted to a certain pressure" before she voted to give the gold medal to the Russians. There was no evidence of Russian involvement, he added.

"This pressure resulted in putting this judge in a condition not to give the gold medal" to the Canadians, Cinquanta said.

The IOC executive committee voted 7-1, with one abstention, to accept the gold medal recommendation from the skating union.

"We took a position that is one of justice and fairness for the athletes," IOC president Jacques Rogge said.

The controversy began when Sale and Pelletier were beaten by Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze of Russia in a 5-4 vote that surprised many observers. The Canadians skated flawlessly while the Russians made a few technical errors.

The decision allowed the Russians to extend their streak of winning gold in the pairs in every Olympics since 1964.

It is the fourth time the IOC has awarded a second gold medal.

"We hope it doesn't happen again," Rogge said.

The move came just hours before the case was to be heard by an international arbitration panel for sport.

Since Monday, there have been reports that the French judge was pressured to cast her vote for the Russians. The ISU had planned to review the scoring at a meeting next week, but the deal Friday allowed the matter to be settled in the swift manner the IOC urged.

Canadian officials said they didn't want the Russians stripped of the gold medal, but they believed Sale and Pelletier also should be rewarded if evidence of wrongdoing was uncovered.

France's top Olympic official had said Thursday that Le Gougne voted honestly despite pressure from coaches.

"It is clear that Marie-Reine was approached by certain people who had an interest to see their couple win -- coaches, left and right. It is a classic thing in figure skating," said Didier Gailhaguet, head of the French Olympic committee and skating federation.

He denied that the French federation pressured Le Gougne or that there was any collusion with other judges. He said that Le Gougne had written to the ISU "that her vote was not influenced and that she voted in honesty and with good conscience."

The Canadian Broadcast Corp. reported Thursday that Britain's Sally-Ann Stapleford, who is on the ISU's technical committee, said Le Gougne approached her after the event and "expressed some concern" that there had been an impropriety before the event. She would not elaborate.

Le Gougne favored the Russians despite an obvious technical error, joining judges from former Eastern bloc members Russia, Poland, Ukraine and China. ISU rules prevent judges from commenting publicly about decisions and Le Gougne refused to accept calls to her hotel.

Valentin Piseyev, president of the Russian Skating Federation, said the organization had not pressured any judges.

"That's absolutely silly," Piseyev told the Russian daily Trud. "You have to be able to honorably accept defeat. And if you haven't learned it yet, then learn it."

In Moscow, Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matviyenko called the controversy "a disgraceful fuss," and said she was going to Salt Lake City to support the Russian team.

The developments came on the eve of the ice dancing competition, an event with the reputation of subjective scoring.