French and Canadian judges

Belatedly, I just finished reading Mark Lund's book "Frozen Assets." I did not find it to be very well written, and I think that the author failed to make good on his promise to tell the inside scoop. But there were some interesting facts about judging that I hadn't been aware of.

For reform-minded people who think that judges who are caught cheating should be banned for life, the favorite whipping boy is Yuki Balkov. This is the Ukranian judge who was caught on tape fixing the 1998 Olympic ice dance competition, served a one-year suspension, then returned to international judging in plenty of time to vote for the Russian/French team of Anassina and Peiserat in 2002.

And of course the Marie-Reine LeGougne/Didier Gailhaguet business was well publicized.

But according to Lund, if the ISU Technical Committee had had its way, the French Federation would have been barred from judging in the Olympics in the first place. The Technical Committee tracked the performances of French and Hungarian judges from 1996 to 1999 and on the basis of this investigtion proposed that the they be suspended. But the full membership of the ISU Council (surprise, surprise) voted against the suspension.

In 1984 Canadian judge David Dore was suspended by the ISU for one year for crooked judging at the 1984 Olympics and at Skate America, for showing extreme National bias, especially in giving outrageously inflated marks to Underhill and Martini. Dore was immediately elected as director of the Canadian Figure Skating Association (now Skate Canada), where he served for 18 years until he was elected vice president of the ISU last year.

Boris Chait was accused -- it was never actually proved -- of threatening and bullying judges to support the Israeli dance team, half of which happened to be his daughter. The next year he was selected president of the Israeli Skating Federation.

The trend seems to be, far from being punished for these activities contrary to the best interests of the sport, the bad guys are actually cheered on and rewarded by their national federations. Immediately upon receiving a four-year suspension from the ISU, M. Gailhauget was re-elected by acclamation as President of the French federation.

Mathman

Not surprising -- the judges that have been accused of favoritism and cheating are working in the best interests of their own skaters.

Interesting tidbits, Mathman. Even on the "60 Minutes" piece, where they only have 12 minutes to do their investigative report, they showed an example of one Canadian judge who had reported cheating on the part of another judge (don't recall the nationality) to the ISU being the one to receive punishment, while the cheating judge went on to bigger and better things. The longer this all goes on, the more I think cleaning up judging in figure skating is going to be more intractable than Enron. An "American Idol" format is looking better every day, lol.
Rgirl

It's just all sooo sad for those poor figure skaters who work soooo hard all year only to realize that their placement has already been selected for them before they take the ice.

Joe

Mathman said:

But according to Lund, if the ISU Technical Committee had had its way, the French Federation would have been barred from judging in the Olympics in the first place. The Technical Committee tracked the performances of French and Hungarian judges from 1996 to 1999 and on the basis of this investigtion proposed that the they be suspended. But the full membership of the ISU Council (surprise, surprise) voted against the suspension.
Mathman

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There's no use banning the federations, as some judges will just move federations. Katalin Alpern, the aforementioned Hungarian judge moved to Israel. So did Korytek (father of Oksana Baiul's former coach, who voted for her at the 1994 Olympics. he was the Ukrainian official then; now he is an official for Israel).

What? No Russian or American judges listed here? For shame! There are many judges from other countries who also fall into this category.

Toller Cranston always claimed "the outcome of the skate was already decided before the skater stepped on the ice." This fact is not unknown to skaters. It was pretty much a known fact - especially in the days of figures. Plenty of "backroom deals" were made as Toller used to call them.

Ladskater said:

What? No Russian or American judges listed here? For shame! There are many judges from other countries who also fall into this category.

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Canadians too?

Joe

Joe...

...I agree with you that the saddest part of this whole thing is how unfair it is to the hard working skaters, and also to their families who often sacrifice so much to give their kids this opportunity.

What a shame.

DG

None of this surprises me. Someone mentioned the 60 Minutes piece with the Canadain judge. I believe that was referring to Jean Senft. She was just as crooked as Balkov, IMO. I hate that the North American media martyrs her. I think she shouldn't be allowed to judge, if you want fair juding when there's a Canadian near the podium.

Ladskater said:

What? No Russian or American judges listed here? For shame! There are many judges from other countries who also fall into this category.

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The book does mention the two-year suspension (1978-1980) of all judges from the Soviet Union. I don't know whether any U.S. judges have faced accusations of this kind.

Mathman

Antilles said:

None of this surprises me. Someone mentioned the 60 Minutes piece with the Canadain judge. I believe that was referring to Jean Senft. She was just as crooked as Balkov, IMO. I hate that the North American media martyrs her. I think she shouldn't be allowed to judge, if you want fair juding when there's a Canadian near the podium.

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This is the first time I've heard Jean Senft called crooked. I'd like an explanation on that. My understanding is that she was punished for recording her conversation with Scumbag Balkov. I've never understood why she was punished.

ITA, Antilles.
Senft did the exact same thing as LeGougne, yet LeGougne is considered horrible and crooked while Senft is practially considered a saint.

Senft

Mrs. Senft is known for giving Canadian skaters higher marks than she does other skaters. I think it was Four Continents a few years back when she placed Wing and Lowe (or one of the Canadian dancers) 3rd, and placed Lang and Tchernyshev who eventually won the silver in 4th...

I'm glad this isn't rhythmic gymnastics, where you are allowed to judge those you coach or your own children! Mrs. Senft's daughter is an ice dancer...imagine what an uproar that would cause, if she were allowed to judge her daughter...