Russian Figure Skating Gold Raises Questions

Russia wins its first figure skating gold medal in ladies singles, but the margin of victory for Adelina Sotnikova has generated outrage in some quarters, simple puzzlement in others.

The 17-year-old Russian national champion was awarded 149.95 points in the free skate -- the second-highest score ever and more than 18 points better than her season best – with three skaters to go. Defending champion Yuna Kim of Korea, who held a slim lead of 0.28 after the short program, skated last and earned only 144.19 points, giving Sotnikova a 224.59 to 219.11 victory.

Christine Brennan of USA Today called the outcome "ridiculous" on Twitter. Philip Hersh of the Chicago Tribune said Sotnikova won thanks to a "judges’ decision that may go down as among the most questionable in figure skating’s checkered history."

For a sport that has seen its popularity wane, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

"Controversy has always made figure skating bigger," said Gwendal Peizerat, the 2002 Olympic ice dancing champion from France. "It’s the best thing that people can talk about it, like what we’re doing now. Everybody is doing that in their TV room, around the table while they’re eating. They’re talking about what happened."

Peizerat, a television commentator, huddled with journalists to study the judges’ marks after the competition before a nearly full house at the Iceberg Skating Palace.

"Everything is hidden in math," he said. "That’s the problem of figure skating today."

Peizerat sat with silver medalists Michelle Kwan of the U.S. and Elvis Stojko of Canada during the event.

"When we saw the marks of Adelina, we were shocked," Peizerat said. "And she also said it in the press conference. The skater herself said she was really surprised."

Twelve years after the judging scandal in Salt Lake City forced an overhaul of the scoring system, there is room for suspicion.

A draw assigns judges to the events. A U.S. judge and a Korean judge were on the panel for the short program, but were replaced in the free skate by a Russian judge who is married to the head of the Russian skating federation and a Ukrainian judge who was suspended a year for improprieties.

Ashley Wagner of the U.S, who was seventh, said figure skating "needs to be held more accountable with its [judging] system if they want people to believe in it.

"To be completely honest, this sport needs fans. This sport needs people who want to watch it. People do not want to watch a sport where they see someone skate lights out and they can’t depend on that person to be the one that wins."

Sotnikova performed seven triples while Kim had six. However, Sotnikova also finished more than seven points ahead of Mao Asada of Japan, who landed the only the only triple axel of the women’s competition and had a clean performance.

Peizerat said he and the other skating stars were upset because the inconsistency of the scores seemed to indicate something was happening behind the scenes.

"Just be fair and it would be maybe the same ranking, but not that obvious," Peizerat said.

Peizerat said the judges appeared to give Sotnikova, the 2011 world junior champion, a huge cushion in case the remaining three skaters did well.Kim, however, did not complain.

"The scores are given by the judges," she said. "I am not in the position to comment on it, and there is nothing that would change with my words. The most important thing for me is to participate in these Games and this was my last competition, so I’m happy with that."

Russia has now won a gold medal in every figure skating discipline, including the inaugural team event on Feb. 9.

Sotnikova, who was left off that team, said the snub motivated her.

"I got really angry and decided I will get a medal in the individual event," she said.

Yulia Lipnitskaya, the 15-year-old breakout performer in the team event, faltered in the short program and was fifth. The hopes of the Russians, who were crushed by their men’s ice hockey loss, then shifted to Sotnikova.

She said the crowd, which roared with every jump and waved dozens of flags, "was really helpful. They supported me and I wanted my performance to be interesting for the audience and I believe that I succeeded."

Sotnikova also may have unwittingly succeeded in giving skating a shot in the arm. After Tonya and Nancy in Lillehammer and Skategate in Salt Lake City, will this be known as Russian Home Cooking the Books?

Written by Nick Devlin

Homepage photo: Getty Images

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