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event at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. They were also excluded from participating in any
capacity within the skating union in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.
After a two-day hearing in the conference room of a Lausanne Hotel, the skating union cited Le
Gougne for misconduct, determining that she had acted on Gailhaguet's instructions instead of on her
own judgment when she awarded the Russian pair Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze first
place in the free program, ahead of the Canadian pair Jamie Salé and David Pelletier.
She was also cited for violating skating union rules by not reporting before the end of the pairs event
that Gailhaguet had instructed her to give first place to the Russians, allegedly in exchange for Russian
support for French skaters in the ice dancing competition.
For his part in the scheme, Gailhaguet, a member of the skating union's influential 11-member
governing council since 1998, was also cited for misconduct and suspended from the council.
Cinquanta was quoted as stating, “This was not an easy case for us. Let's say that it was also, in a
certain aspect, a sad moment, because the decision I've read involves individuals who have been part of
our movement. But sport is a very important social activity, and we have to do the utmost to preserve
and protect the activity of the International Skating Union.”
Speaking in separate interviews, Le Gougne and Gailhaguet denounced the hearing as a masquerade
and a farce and indicated they would appeal: first to the skating union's internal appeals commission
and, if necessary, to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, also in Lausanne.
Gailhaguet issued a statement directly attacking Cinquanta, “If Mr. Cinquanta thinks he's protected his
small, personal position and that he's stopped this infernal machine that he's set in motion, he is
completely wrong,'” Gailhaguet said. '”This story is only at its beginning.”
Gailhaguet and Le Gougne also criticized the skating union's failure to summon and pay the travel
expenses of witnesses who might have been more favorable to their cause than the majority of the 13
men and women who testified during the hearing.
Regarded as a reformist when he was first elected to the ISU Presidency, he introduced prize money at
ISU events after negotiating several commercial contracts, including an important television contract
with ABC Sports. The sponsorship deal allowed the ISU to retain athletes who might have otherwise
left Olympic-eligible skating to participate in unsanctioned made-for-television professional skating
competitions, which were then offering large appearance fees to top skaters. The television money also
allowed the ISU to sustain a variety of development programs in both Figure Skating and Speed
Skating branches, for example, the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating.
However, he has been the subject of a considerable amount of criticism from the figure skating
community, particularly in Canada and the United States, because of his limited knowledge of the
sport. During the 2002 Olympic Winter Games figure skating scandal, he was criticized for admitting
he didn't “know figure skating so well”. His proposed new scoring system for figure skating also drew
criticism due to the major feature of secrecy which would prevent anyone from ever knowing how an
individual judge had marked the competition.
When he asked the ISU Congress to approve his new code-of-points-based judging system for figure
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