Word: canadians
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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This year, the Canadian women were forced to play for the bronze when Britain beat them in the semifinals. The British went on to defeat the Swiss in an exciting (honest) gold-medal match that went down to the last stone. All the members of the British team hail from Scotland, which is appropriate since the sport traces its origins to the 16th century and frozen Scottish lochs. The 19-kg stones used in competition are still cut from Scottish granite...
Gailhaguet denies those claims and suggests that pressure was brought upon Le Gougne from "left and right"--implying that it came from Canadian skating officials as well. Whatever the truth turns out to be, international figure skating and the Olympic movement itself have been shaken as never before. Even before Tonya Harding went gunning for Nancy Kerrigan, figure skating had an image problem. Not on the ice. On the ice it's all double Axels and triple Salchows and Kristi Yamaguchi twirling straight onto the Wheaties box. Say all you want about the smiley dudes on their snowboards, but when...
Until last week, only real fans of the sport knew the extent to which skate judging can involve intrigue, deceit and shady arithmetic. For them it was just mildly surprising that a flawless performance by the Canadians could get a silver medal while the gold went to a bumpier routine by the Russians. What was truly surprising was that the matter exploded. For that, credit is due to Jacques Rogge, the new president of the International Olympic Committee. It was Rogge who pressed on Cinquanta the idea to award a second set of gold medals to Sale and Pelletier...
...more serious problem is that the close ties of most judges to the national skating federations that name them to competitions lead some to act like operatives for their home-team skaters. At several competitions leading up to the '98 Winter Games in Nagano, Jean Senft, a Canadian Olympic judge, was disturbed to have been privy to conversations in which judges agreed in advance on the outcomes. When she complained to skating officials, they demanded proof. So Senft brought a tape recorder with her to the Nagano games. On the day of the pairs competitions, she surreptitiously taped a phone...
...that time Rogge and the other members of the Olympic committee were aware that the Canadian Olympic Association had filed an application before the court of Arbitration for Sport, a non-Olympic body, asking the court to hear its request for a second gold medal and to compel the pairs judges to testify. The court agreed to hear the case on Friday. That threatened to carry the dispute to a forum beyond the control of the committee and the I.S.U. On Friday morning the nine-member I.O.C. board ratified the I.S.U. plan by a 7-1 vote. China opposed...