Columnist Dean Juipe: Skating judge acts as if she’s guilty

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, April 30, 2002 | 8:59 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

She wouldn't be a good poker player.

Marie-Reine Le Gougne may be able to keep a straight face as she appears to be lying, fibbing or bending the truth, but her dour, tight-lipped expression speaks otherwise.

She looks guilty of immorally if not illegally influencing the outcome of the pairs figure skating competition in the 2002 Olympics, and if not for her self-serving interests perhaps she would admit to the charges that are before her today.

She once did admit to jockeying her score to favor a Russian pair at the expense of a Canadian duo at Salt Lake City, yet she recanted that admission shortly after the Olympics when faced with expulsion from the French Federation.

Did you see her on "60 Minutes" Sunday night? Her robotic and preprogramed answers ran contrary to the overall impression she gave, which is of a woman who has enjoyed an elite status in her home country and one who would do anything to extend her luxurious lifestyle another few years.

But Le Gougne should be banned for life, and if the International Skating Union has any moxie at all it will banish her when it announces its decision on the matter. That decision could come as early as today, as the ISU completes an inquiry into the accusations following two days of hearings in Utah.

I don't know the solution to what looks to be a rampant disregard for fairness when it comes to international figure skating, but I do know that those who have been caught undermining the sport should be permanently exiled. Yet that has never been the case and "vote trading" has reached epidemic proportions.

The situation is so pathetic, it's almost funny. A judge who was caught on film silently communicating (by using foot signs) with a fellow judge at the 1998 Olympics was given the equivalent of a slap on the wrist and was welcomed back as a jurist in Salt Lake City.

Le Gougne, presently serving a "temporary" suspension, is seeking reinstatement in spite of her earlier admission and in spite of at least two witnesses who heard her say she was pressured to give the Russians a better score than the Canadians in the pairs event. Compounding the unintentional hilarity of the situation is a separate accusation that an American representative to the ISU, Claire Ferguson, has already determined that she will vote to reinstate Le Gougne no matter what the evidence indicates.

There hasn't been this much chicanery and influence peddling since the mob had its way in Las Vegas.

What is apparent is that the figure skating judges' fraternity is tightly knit and so interwoven with deceit and secret deals that it may take years to unsort it. Clandestine scoring arrangements have become such a large part of the fabric of the sport that even Le Gougne -- who was virtually caught red-handed -- has twisted the circumstances to claim that she is the victim in the ISU inquiry.

"It's a one-way hearing, an organized massacre," she said.

Poor girl. She was part of a scheme to cheat at the highest level of sport, and got caught.

Her belated denials are but a bluff, but few of the impartial observers at the table are buying.

archive