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Salt Lake 2002
Monday, February 18, 2002
Olympic alchemy: Skaters' silver turns into gold Canadian duo awarded gold in special ceremony JOHN JEANSONNE, NEWSDAY Originally published Monday, February 18, 2002
SALT LAKE CITY -- One thing we have learned, in the Olympic pairs judging episode, is that there are different ways of looking at figure skating events.
On Sunday night, when Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier were presented with gold medals, standing with the other gold medalists from their competition, Russia's Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, it could have been seen as prolonging a seven-day-old situation. Or, as sportsmanlike closure.
It could have been considered a melodramatic way to fill the arena on a night originally meant for the odd theater of ice dancing. Or, a serious attempt to right a wrong.
As soon as the ice dancers had finished their business, blue carpets were rolled onto the ice and "the gold medalists" were introduced, Sale and Berezhnaya walking out side-by-side ahead of their male partners, Pelletier and Sikharulidze, and stood that way on the top step of the victory podium.
This co-mingling of teams and nations, of winners-turned-victims and victims-turned-winners, was followed by the presentation of gold to Sale and Pelletier by Ottavio Cinquanta, the International Skating Union's beleaguered president who had struggled to deal with the issue while International Olympic Committee leaders pressed him to expedite his investigation.
The Russians already were wearing their gold medals, and all stood for the playing of both anthems -- Russia first, Canada next -- then exchanged hugs and posed for pictures, Pelletier happily firing his bouquet of flowers into the crowd.
On the way to becoming the longest long program in Olympic history, and leading up to the most prolific medal ceremony in Olympics history -- four golds -- there continued to be ongoing mystery and confusion, just as in the moments immediately after week's pairs final.
With the Canadians' original silver medals upgraded to gold by Friday's ISU decision, it wasn't immediately clear that the Russians would be part of the ceremony. Or whether both anthems would be played. Or whether both flags would be raised.
Less than an hour before the conclusion of ice dancing's third of four rounds, officials put out the word that China's Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo -- the third-place pairs team, then and now -- had been invited but still had not confirmed their attendance. The Chinese never showed.
Cinquanta, meanwhile, will convene today a regularly scheduled ISU council meeting that he originally contended would deal with the judging misconduct, and he promised to present a "new project" that would lead to the overhauling of the scoring procedure.
In some ways, the ceremony felt like the best solution for last week's scandal, when it was concluded that a predetermined vote for the Russians by now-suspended French judge Marie Reine Le Gougne had to be thrown out, leaving a 4-4 tie. On the other hand: All this for a medal that is approximately a half-percent gold?
Officials at O.C. Tanner, the Salt Lake City company that mined and crafted all the Winter Games medals, said that 92.5 percent of both the silver and gold medals is, in fact, silver. (The other mineral in the mix is copper.) Except, of course, there was the matter of that half-percent gold symbolizing victory.
It was heavy symbolism, as Tanner claimed its 1.25-pound awards were the weightiest in Olympic history. Sale explained the reason she hadn't been wearing her silver medal all last week was not out of shame; rather, "It's really heavy," she said, and she is only 5-foot-1.
Tanner happily had publicized it was responding to interviews with potential Olympians who had said they "wanted to feel a tug when the medal is put around their necks." With all the tugging going on in this strange story, why not?
Results
U.S. speed-skater Chris Witty wins gold and a teammate takes bronze in 1,000- meter speed-skating. U.S. women beat Britain in curling. U.S. comes close to medal in two-man bobsled.
TV BEST BETS
Today's schedule includes curling (U.S. men's and women's teams), dance figure skating, freestyle skiing, men's hockey (U.S. vs. Belarus) and ski jumping. CBUT, 3-9 p.m.; MSNBC, 10 p.m.-4 a.m. (replay); NBC, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. and 1:05 a.m. to 4:30 a.m.
MEDAL COUNT
Gold silver bronze total
Germany 6 10 6 22
U.S. 4 7 7 18
Norway 8 5 0 13
Austria 1 3 9 13
Russia 4 4 2 10
Italy 3 2 2 7
Switzer. 3 1 2 6
France 2 3 1 6
Finland 3 1 1 5
Canada 2 0 3 5
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