Figure skating scandal may become dangerous precedent in Olympic movement

Such incidents tend to become more and more numerous threatening to become an avalanche of protests that may bury the sports at the Olympics under their weight.

Seven days ago, Russian pair Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze were awarded the gold medal ahead of Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier.

Le Gougne, who voted for the Russians in a 5-4 split, was suspended for misconduct for not reporting the approach by the French federation. The International Olympic Committee decided to give the Canadians a duplicate gold.

Lev Kofman, president of the Russian freestyle skiing federation, has written to International Ski Federation President Gian Franco Kasper complaining about the scores awarded Russian їompetitors in the Olympic women's aerials on Monday.

Kofman emphasized that Russia weren't lodging an official protest over the event, won by Australian Alisa Camplin ahead of Canadians Veronica Brenner and Deirdra Dionne.

But he echoed the complaints of skiers Olga Koroleva, who finished fourth, and Natalia Orekhova, who was seventh.

He said he wrote Kasper that the judges "are not professional enough. They're not objective. The Americans and Canadians vote only for their own people."

Koroleva was first after the first jump of the finals, her most difficult. She landed her second jump cleanly, but still couldn't get past the Canadians who had surged ahead with their second jumps.

Orekhova didn't really blame the judges for her finish, but she did say she thought the judging was skewed in the qualification round.