Figure Skating - Part F - by Anne Shier (a.k.a. "Annie")

(Based on the book, “Winter Olympics:  An Insider’s Guide to the Legends, the Lore, and the Games”, Vancouver Edition, copyright 2008 by Ron C. Judd)

A 6.0 for Deceit from the French Judge:

The sport’s second-biggest international scandal (let’s face it:  you’ve got to get up pretty early in the morning to make bigger figure skating headlines than Tonya Harding’s kneecapping campaign) unfolded at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, creating ripples that continue to come ashore today.

Skating watchers had long suspected that certain competitions were essentially rigged, creating the classic something’s-fishy retort:  “He still got a 6.0 from the Ukrainian judge “, after a particularly dreadful performance.  But not until Canada’s pairs skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier crashed head-on with skating destiny at Salt Lake’s Delta Center did anyone come up with the goods to prove it.

Sale and Pelletier skated a memorable, near-perfect free skate that had most of the world believing they had won the gold medal – which was awarded, instead, to Russia’s comparatively shaky Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze.

After much booing, second-guessing, and later, finger-pointing, French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne finally cracked under pressure, admitting she’d traded the first-place votes to the Russians for first-place votes for a French ice dancer, and a bottle of Stolichnaya.  (Okay, we made up the last part.)  The resulting scandal led to the rare awarding of two sets of gold medals – and a complete overhaul of skating’s traditional 6.0 scoring system.

The Battle of the Brians:

Canada’s Brian Orser became famous in his early career for notable second-place finishes, including one at the Sarajevo Games, where he outscored American Scott Hamilton in both the short and long program, but was edged out by Hamilton’s superior scores in compulsory figures.

Orser’s most famous “second”, however, came in the 1988 Calgary Games, where he battled with America’s Brian Boitano in a memorable “Battle of the Brians”.

Orser, before ever taking the ice as home-nation favourite, had added even more second-place finishes – at the 1984, 1985, and 1986 world championships.  But, he finally won that event in 1987, swapping his familiar second run on the podium with Boitano, who had won in 1986.

Entering the Calgary Games, each was at his competitive peak – Orser was undefeated in major competitions that year – and the much-awaited clash was considered a toss-up.  Boitano led after compulsory figures; Orser won the short program by a nose.  In the long program, Boitano, in a costume with epaulets and skating to “Napolean”, went first and delivered a near-perfect routine that will long be remembered as the climax of his distinguished career.

Orser remained with striking distance, but the pressure – he had been chosen his nation’s flag bearer in the opening ceremonies – got to him.  He two-footed the landing on an early triple jump and subbed a double Axel for a triple near the end of the skate.

The outcome, however, still wasn’t clear.  Two judges rated the contest a tie, with four giving the nod to Orser and three to Boitano.  Under the rules of the day, judges used the technical merit score to break the deadlock; both gave the edge to Boitano.  Orser, once again, stood second, this time on the medal platform in his home country in a contest that will be remembered as one of the greatest in figure skating history.

The two Brians, revisiting the Calgary Saddledome in 2008 for a documentary on the 20^th anniversary of the event, said they’ll always share a bond from the experience. “There’s this brotherhood or camaraderie we have to this day because no one, except each other, can understand what we went through that night,” Boitano told Slam Sports.  “I consider Brian a friend.”

Orser agreed.  “We played it out perfectly for the fans of the sport, “ he said.  “Not just figure skating, but Olympic sport.  We lived up to the billing.”

Orser remains a force in the competitive skating world.  He’s a Toronto-based coach whose most recent star pupil is South Korean Kim Yu-Na, who holds the record for short- and free-skate points under the ISU’s new scoring system and could be a medal threat in the 2010 Vancouver Games.

copyright 2014, Anne Shier.  All rights reserved.