How many of you think it was unfair judging for Gold Medal?
I am a big fan of Jamie Salé and David Pelletier of Canada and last night they performed marvelous without any mistakes and were still not granted a Gold Medal compare to Russians.
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SALT LAKE CITY - A LOVE STORY sealed with a Judas kiss. And a silver, not gold, for Canada in pairs figure skating. Tarnished silver. Fool’s gold.
Jamie Salé and David Pelletier skated the superior long program here last night. They knew it. Everybody in the Delta Center knew it. All those fans who rose to their feet and hollered “SIX! SIX! SIX!” — demanding perfect artistic marks for the darling Canadian couple — knew it.
And in their treacherous hearts, their knaves’ hearts, surely the five judges who placed the Canadians second to the Russians — Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze — knew it too.
Such a shame. Such a sham.
“Our silver medal feels likes gold to us,” a brave but barely composed Salé said afterward. But minutes later, stepping away from the press conference podium and into a stairwell, she dissolved in tears.
It was a sad ending for “Love Story” after all. Totally unexpected for the skaters, totally unexpected for the spectators. The athletes were gracious, if downcast; the audience was in a fury.
At the conclusion of the program — their signature “Love Story” routine — Pelletier had gone to his knees, then dropped on his chest and kissed the ice. Salé drifted backward, a continuation of the final melancholic move in the choreography, then raised her hands to her mouth, perhaps stifling a shriek of joy.
They were so damn sure. And they were so damn right.
“I have to say, these were the worst six months of my life,” said Pelletier, in reference to the pressure and the preparation and the weight of expectation this couple carried into the Games. “So many sleepless nights, so many nights. The Olympic dream can become a nightmare sometimes.”
What a pitifully disgraceful night for the insulated, wicked world of judicial figure skating.
A 5-4 split on the panel, with politics and brazen alliances unquestionably costing Salé and Pelletier, reigning world champions, the Olympic gold they had rightfully earned. In the Russian camp: Russia, Ukraine, Poland, China and France. For the Canadians: Canada, United States, Japan and Germany. And score that French mark a trade-off for future favours in ice dancing.
The Russian interpretation of “Meditation” was adjudged more artistically sublime that the evocative and beautifully inhabited “Love Story,” the routine Salé and Pelletier resurrected, gambling it would be their ticket to gold at the Olympics.
It was not the wrong decision. “Love Story” put the Canadians on the map, when they introduced it — and themselves — at Skate America in 1999. They won that competition. They’ve won most of their competitions since, including nine in a row — many of them over this same Russian team — before last night.
But maybe the unfrilly, deliberately anti-froth “Love Story” was not to the liking of the European judges who opted for Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze. The Canadians were all-North American and unfussy in their mood, look and presentation — from their grey collegiate costumes, true to the story (Pelletier had actually bought his duds off the rack at Banana Republic), to Salé’s bouncy ponytail.
This should have been a climactic end to the story and a climax to their figure skating career. Certainly it was a nearly flawless execution under the most intense pressure — seeking to knock Russians off the gold medal podium for the first time since 1964.
Salé and Pelletier shimmered. They glowed. They evoked a tenderness that transcended the emotional hysteria so typical of figure skating narratives.
They were so attractive and so polished, nailing side-by-side triples, double axel-double toe combinations, huge throw triples, perfect twists and gorgeous lifts. Meanwhile, Berezhnaya just managed to hold on to the landing of two throws, Sikharulidze stumbled out of his double axel and the two thumped into one another on a triple twist.
The most alarming episode, however, occurred during the warm-up when Salé, with her head down, skated directly into Sikharulidze. It was a severe collision, a mighty smack of bodies, with Salé down on her knees for some 30 seconds, then rising to her feet but bent over at the waist. Sikharulidze was obviously concerned and solicitous. He also was seen to be rubbing his ribs in some pain.
Yet Salé showed no hint of discomfort when the Canadians followed the Russians on to the ice for the real thing. That’s not the part that hurt the most here last night.
“We wanted to show everybody our love story,” Salé said.
And they did. Little wonder though, that after the medals were bestowed and the Russian national anthem played, Pelletier ripped his silver from his neck.
David and Jamie were golden — golden fleeced.