Coach: Sport rife with corruption

SALT LAKE CITY -- A former Russian Olympic medalist who is now a U.S. figure skating coach launched an unusual verbal attack on figure skating Thursday, saying the sport was dirty and rife with corruption and alleging that all national skating federations pressure judges and attempt to fix the results of competitions.

"All federations are involved, not only the Russians," said Russian-born Alexander Zhulin, a 1994 Olympic silver medalist who now coaches U.S. ice dancers Naomi Lang and Peter Tchernyshev. "The Canadians are involved, the French are involved, the Italians are involved. Everybody is trying to bring their couples, their skaters, into first place. Everybody is trying to keep the votes for their own country. ...

"I think all judges from their home countries feel pressure from the person who is president, the people in the high posts. ... It's like in life: Some people are strong, and some people are weak, and (the weak judges) just follow what their federation says. That's corruption. ... It's so dirty."

Zhulin's words resonated in a sport in which coaches and athletes rarely publicly condemn the judges -- especially before competition gets under way. His diatribe, uttered in measured tones shortly after his dance team practiced, came a day after it was reported that a French Olympic official said the French judge in Monday's controversial pairs final had felt pressured to cast her vote for the Russian team, which won the gold medal by a 5-4 vote.

Thursday, the official, French figure skating federation head Didier Gailhaguet, said his words were misinterpreted, but the Associated Press stood by the story.

The controversy surrounding the result of the pairs competition has ignited an international uproar that has been exacerbated by developments since: The referee overseeing the judging of that event filed a written complaint about a judge who admitted to feeling pressured to vote a certain way; the International Skating Union began an inquiry into the allegations; and the International Olympic Committee demanded a hasty resolution to the problem.

Many questions will linger at least through Monday, when the ISU's 11-member council assembles in Salt Lake City.

IOC director general Francois Carrard reiterated the IOC's desire for a "speedy resolution" and said the IOC believed ISU officials were working on the problem. Carrard said the IOC would not consider action on the case -- such as discarding the result of the French judge and awarding a second gold medal based on a 4-4 judges decision -- until the organization had received an official report from the ISU.

The German ice dance team of Kati Winkler and Rene Lohse said they nearly lost their motivation to compete after watching the pairs final Monday, in which Russians Elena Berazhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze won the gold medal over Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier -- despite winning the support of the crowd, television announcers and various coaches and athletes.

"Our sport, on Monday, it was wrong," Winkler said Thursday. "I was sad for the Canadians, because they deserved the gold medal. ... This was our question: Why do we skate? Why do we do this if the results come out like this?"

A number of prominent coaches have openly discussed unsubstantiated allegations of a vote-swapping deal between French and Russian officials in which the top Russians in the pairs final allegedly received the French vote in exchange for Russia's support of the top French team in the ice dance final.

Zhulin, the coach, speculated that the scandal might cause the judges to compensate during this weekend's competition, attempting to convince the public that corruption does not exist by doing the unexpected. But even that, he said, could have severe repercussions for the skaters.

"I feel sorry for the French (Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat) now," Zhulin said.

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