Newsweek Cover: 'The Sleazy Side of Skating'

		NEWSWEEK The February 25 Newsweek Cover Story (on newsstands Monday, February 18) examines the skating controversy and what it's done to the sport and the image of the Olympics. Also, Newsweek learns new details on the Enron scandal; and McCain's quest for campaign finance reform; plus: a look at the Boston Archdiocese, and the mastermind suspected of kidnapping Daniel Pearl. And Denzel Washington's chances to take this year's Oscar for Best Actor. (PRNewsFoto)[TK] NEW YORK, NY USA

Skating Federation Had Initially Decide to Have a New Panel of Judges Watch Video of Skating Pairs and Re-Score the Russians, Canadians; French Judge Begged ISU to 'Get Me Out of This,' Source Says Sale, Pelletier Received Half Dozen Heavily Accented Phone Messages After Winning World Championship Saying They had not 'Deserved to Win,' And 'Were Not Going to Win at the Olympics,' NEW YORK, Feb. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to the controversy that erupted last week over the pairs skating competition in which the Russians were awarded the gold medal over the flawless skating performance of the Canadians, Newsweek has learned that the skating federation had originally decided to have two new panels of judges watch video of the pairs skate, on Thursday morning, and re-score it. But officials quickly realized that denying Russian pair Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze their gold medal would stir up yet another hornet's nest. So instead they hauled in French judge Marie Reine Le Gougne Thursday afternoon and questioned her about whether she was pressured to vote for the Russians. An official close to the International Olympic Committee says she confessed to playing some sort of role in the fiasco, broke down weeping and fell to her knees, begging the International Skating Union to "get me out of this," reports Senior Editor Sharon Begley in the February 25 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, February 18). (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020217/HSSU003 ) By that time, the ISU had several affidavits describing how Le Gougne had traded her first-place vote for Elena and Anton in exchange for a first-place vote from the Russian judge for the French ice-dancing pair in the next competition. Having heard Le Gougne's confession on Friday morning, ISU President Ottavio Cinquanta heard Le Gougne's confession and officially proposed to the IOC that Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier be awarded the gold medal as well. Newsweek has also learned that there had been hints of a conspiracy against Sale and Pelletier months before the Olympics. When Jamie and David got back to their room after winning the World Skating Championships last March, they had half a dozen heavily accented phone messages, says a source close to Canadian skating. The messages said the pair had not "deserved to win," and "were not going to win at the Olympics." However, rather than burying the fiasco, the quick resolution to the controversy reinforced the view that figure skating has a lot to hide -- so much, in fact, that the ISU would take the unprecedented step of agreeing to a double gold in order to avoid too much digging into suspect judging. The scandal had already opened up a window into the longstanding practice of figure-skating judges cutting backroom deals, trading votes and prejudging competitions. "I'm glad this is happening," says longtime skating judge Bonnie McLauthlin. "It's been going on forever." Worse, it blackened the reputation of the entire Olympics. "It's an ugly little dark secret that there are deals made [in figure skating]," said David D'Allessandro, chairman and CEO of financial services giant (and Olympics sponsor) John Hancock. "In the past it might have been left to float along within the [skating] federation. But now the image of the Olympics is at stake." The controversy did more than cast a pall over the Games and its marquee sport. Unlike previous figure skating dust-ups, this one threatened to make world-class meets seem as fixed as a wrestling match between Triple X and The Rock. Skating and Olympics officials have long turned a blind eye to all this. "Our sport has gangrene," recently-retired ice dancer Sophie Moniotte of France tells Newsweek. "In most sports doping is the problem. With figure skating it's deals and manipulation." And ice dancing is a prime example. Suffice it to say that longtime judges recall that the final rankings would often be determined "at a cocktail party [of the figure skating association], and nothing short of withdrawal of a couple from competition would ever change that order for the year," ex-judge Nancy Nelson tells Newsweek. But Skategate may do what previous judging scandals have failed to do, Begley writes: force much-needed reforms in figure skating. (Read Newsweek's news releases at http://www.Newsweek.MSNBC.com. Click "Pressroom.") Click Here For Special Offer