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IOC Looks to Resolve Skating Row VOA News 15 Feb 2002 08:05 UTC 
The International Olympic Committee is seeking a speedy end to the controversy over the pairs figure-skating competition at the Salt Lake City Winter Games.
IOC president Jacques Rogge says the sports body will consider any request by the International Skating Union to resolve the row over a judge's call Monday that gave gold medals to two Russian skaters, instead of a Canadian pair, despite a technical error by the Russians.
The narrow five-four decision gave gold medals to Russian skaters Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze over Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier.
The vote unleashed a firestorm of criticism and charges of manipulation and coercion that have overshadowed the 19th Winter Olympics.
The controversy has focused on a French judge, Marie-Reine Le Gougne, who cast the deciding vote. The chief of the French Olympic team, Didier Gailhaguet, insists the judge voted according to her conscience and was not manipulated by anyone.
Mr. Rogge met Thursday with the head of the International Skating Union, Ottavio Cinquanta, in an effort to speed up resolution of the controversy. Canadian sports officials want the skating union to award a second set of gold medals to the Canadians. A member of the IOC governing board, Kevan Gosper, said the Olympic Committee has not discussed such a proposal, but he did not rule out the possibility, which has been debated widely in media reports.
Meanwhile, there was no controversy late Thursday over the judges' decision to award the gold medal for men's figure skating to Alexei Yagudin of Russia. All nine judges scored Yagudin's technique at 5.9 points out of 6 for his performance, and four of them gave him a perfect 6.0 score for artistry of his performance.
Yagudin's countryman Evgeni Plushenko won the silver medal. Tim Goebel finished third, becoming the first American man to get a figure-skating medal in 10 years.
Earlier, Canada's Catriona LeMay Doan won the gold medal in women's 500-meter speedskating. German skaters Monique Garbrecht-Enfeldt and Sabine Volker took the silver and the bronze.
Johann Muehlegg, a German who skis for Spain, won the gold medal in the men's cross-country skiing pursuit competition. Two silver medals were awarded, to Norwegian skiiers Thomas Alsgaard and Frode Estil, after a photo-finish tie for second place.
In the women's alpine combined skiing competition, Janica Kostelic of Croatia took the gold, with Renate Gotschl of Austria winning the silver and Martine Ertl of Germany taking the bronze.
Some information for this report provided by Reuters, AP, AFP and DPA.
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