01x04 - Gold w*r

[bunniefuu]

[Christine Brennan]

Figure skating is unique.

It is sport, but it is also art.

The music and the gliding on the ice,

that takes you

to a completely different place.

[airy music playing]

But as long as

I've covered figure skating,

I have never seen anything

like what I saw in Salt Lake City.

[announcer]

The 2002 Olympic Winter Games.

Representing Canada

was a dream come true for me.

[announcer] Let's welcome

Jamie Salé and David Pelletier.

We're at the Olympics for the first time,

playing with the big guys.

[announcer] And from Russia,

Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze.

The Olympics is not only

competition between skaters,

but this is competition between countries.

[Christine] This really was a battle

of North America against Russia.

Frankly, it was the Cold w*r on ice.

[crowd cheering]

[announcer] Oh! How did that happen?

No!

The Russians hadn't lost a gold medal

in that event in 40 years

and they weren't about to start now.

[reporter] The pairs skating

becomes the unlikely site of controversy.

The judge ran over to me

and said, "You've got to help me."

"I had to do it."

That's when the sh*t got real.

If she was pressured,

was she also influenced?

What?

Have you received

any proof of impropriety?

that the long arm of organized crime

has reached across the globe.

This is one of the biggest scandals

in Olympic history.

[theme music playing]

[Jamie] I grew up in a small town

in the middle of Alberta in Canada.

My parents divorced

when I was a young child.

My mom raised me as a single mom.

We didn't have a lot of money.

A lot of the kids

would make fun of me because of that.

It was hard.

And I always felt like an outsider.

So my outlet, my

My escape was skating.

[announcer] Jamie Salé.

[crowd cheering and applauding]

[Jamie] It's exhilarating.

Like just the feeling of flying like that,

lifting up in the air.

[Patti Salé] Like most Canadian kids,

Jamie was born on ice, raised on ice.

There were ice rinks

in every neighborhood.

But from a young age,

she definitely stood out.

[Jamie] In 1988,

the Olympic Games came to Canada.

It was just extremely magical for me.

There was so much excitement and energy

and I knew the world was watching.

[announcer] Oh, she did it!

I just remember thinking,

"Oh, my gosh, I wanna feel that."

[Patti] She would say to me,

"When I go to the Olympics."

It was never, "If." It was always, "When."

[announcer] Jamie Salé and Jason Turner

see themselves

as the team of the future

in Canadian and world figure skating.

[Jamie] If you're a strong single skater,

you're selected to be a pair skater.

- Just do a two-hander.

- Just two hands.

And then it's down to chemistry.

My partner and I got to Nationals.

And then we qualified

for the World Championships.

I want my mom!

I was 16 years old, just a baby.

And I'm I'm going to represent Canada.

[hopeful music playing]

[announcer] Let's look to Canada's

Jamie Salé and Jason Turner

at their first World Championships.

[announcer 2] Here are the double axels.

And Jason touched down with his hand.

[Jamie] We ended up

not having a great skate there.

[Patti] She and her partner Jason

finished sixteenth.

She comes home and said to me,

"Mom, I'm breaking up with Jason

because I don't think that I can be

a world champion with him."

[Jamie] So then I was on the hunt

for a new partner,

someone that could take me

to the next level,

which was to win gold

at the Olympics.

That was hard because

the Russians were really good.

Really good.

[Christine] There are very few dynasties

in sport like Russian pair skating.

It's that beautiful,

lyrical quality of the Bolshoi Ballet

embodied on the ice.

And they're unbeatable.

[tense music playing]

[speaking Russian]

To skate for Russia at the Olympics,

just the idea of getting there

was beyond my wildest dreams.

I was born in the city of Nevinnomyssk.

There is not much there.

My father liked his drink.

He drank a lot,

and that's why my parents separated.

My mother found

skates that were three sizes too big,

because there were

no smaller ones in the Soviet Union.

I was six years old,

coaches came to our town.

I was singled out

as the best one in the group,

so I was sent to Moscow.

It was a 36-hour train ride away.

Of course it was hard

for my mother to let me go.

[Tamara Moskvina] Talented young skaters

were brought to the central school

in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

And they were taught by coach like me.

Tamara Moskvina is a genius.

She's a mastermind.

She is one of the great coaches

in the history of sports.

Over the years, she has produced

Olympic gold medalist

after Olympic gold medalist.

[Tamara] We take normal people

and make stars out of them.

But the Olympics

is not only competition between skaters,

but this is competition between countries.

[Christine] The Communist system,

uh, decided early on

that Olympic gold medals would be

part of the story of their success.

It's really intertwined

with the fact of beating North America.

And they were gonna dominate,

whatever it takes.

[crowd cheering]

[Tamara] When Elena came to Moscow,

she was very shy.

Didn't talk much.

But she was, uh,

technically very talented.

Very talented.

[reporter]

Elena Berezhnaya is 18 years old

and wants to meet

Arnold Schwarzenegger someday.

Her partner, Oleg Shliakhov, is 22.

[Elena] I was small and skinny,

so the coaches thought

I would work well in pairs skating.

I was assigned a partner.

Oleg was a very tempermental guy.

[announcer] The throw triple loop.

She has beautiful, tight legs in the air,

but is simply unable to hold the landing

and this is a particularly bad

[Elena] He expected perfection,

and his negative outbursts

were directed at me.

[announcer] He wants out of there.

Tamara is saying under her breath,

"You stay right there."

He's been known to be

rather aggressive with his partners.

[Tamara] When there was some mistakes,

he cannot control his anger.

And he could hit her.

[man translating]

"I can only answer in one way."

"What happened between us

was strictly our own business."

[Tamara] His abuses never stopped.

Never stopped.

And then one day there was an accident.

It happened so fast.

We were doing spinning,

doing parallel spins.

We came very close to each other

and his skate hit my head.

Elena Berezhnaya's career

and life were nearly ended.

[reporter 2] The two were practicing when,

in a tragic accident,

Shliakhov's skate pierced Elena's skull,

sending bone fragments into her brain.

[Elena] I couldn't speak.

I didn't know why.

I could understand everything,

but I couldn't respond.

[Tamara] I went to the hospital,

visited Elena, and she was laying in bed,

pale

thin,

motionless.

[Elena] The doctors told me

I needed an operation.

No one knew

what was going to happen to me,

how it would go, how long it would take.

[interviewer] Was it likely

she might not skate again?

Of course.

[Jamie] I was still

on the hunt for a partner.

I was back to doing singles,

which was not my passion at all.

I didn't really know of any other skaters

that were even available

that were at that level that could compete

with me at the Olympics.

[Patti] I think she was depressed.

And it was painful to watch

um, because everything was falling apart.

[Jamie] And then someone said,

"What about David Pelletier?"

[audience applauding]

[announcer] In the last couple of years,

David Pelletier has been skating

with Allison Gaylor and Caroline Roy.

[David] Pairs skating

is the same thing as dating.

You're together for four years,

and then it doesn't work anymore.

[crowd cheering]

In 1998,

I told my partner at the time,

"You know, I think I want to try out

to skate with other people."

So I need someone

that wants it as bad as me.

And here comes Jamie.

[announcer] But of all the skaters here,

she's probably one of the best.

[Jamie] I reached out to him,

and asked him

if he'd be willing to do a tryout.

I remember being incredibly nervous.

But then I put my hand out,

and he put his hand out

without even looking and they touched.

We did a lift together,

and it was just effortless.

Everything was so easy with him.

[David] There was so much, so much joy

in her skating.

Timing, like anything else in life

is a big deal in sport.

The stars have to align.

[Elena] I spent months in the hospital.

They wanted me to rest,

but I was ready to start training again.

[Tamara] She started slowly

to recover physically.

So the doctor

allowed her to come to the ice rink.

She decided that she will leave Oleg.

And so I put her with a new partner,

Anton Sikharulidze.

[Anton speaking Russian] I've dedicated

my life to figure skating,

and all I want is to reach the top.

[Elena] It's rare to find

such a perfect partnership,

and life is short, so you have to seize

the opportunity while you can.

[Tamara] When you just watch them

doing simple elements,

you were amazed by their quality

and beauty of their movements.

Repeat after me.

The Russians are coming.

The Russians are coming.

The Russians are coming.

[grand, dramatic music playing]

[Christine] If Tamara has a great,

young new pair, you want to watch them.

And at 1998, in the World Championships,

I got a chance to see

Anton and Elena on the ice.

[announcer] From Russia,

Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze.

["Dark Eyes" playing]

[crowd cheering]

[announcer 2] Magnificent height.

[David] We watched Anton and Elena.

I remember saying,

"That's our competition

for the next four years."

["Dark Eyes" continues playing]

[crowd cheering]

[announcer 2]

They are sensitive, they're elegant,

they are really a very dramatic pair.

[crowd cheering and applauding]

[Christine] They get the gold medal.

And then they just blew the doors off

of the competition the next few years.

The Russian juggernaut really unstoppable.

[Jamie] Russians are known

to have a lot of ballet training.

We have a very,

very different style of skating.

We have more of like

a sort of a powerhouse kind of style.

And we could be playful and have fun.

[announcer] Wow, they sizzle.

[Jamie] We started

competing internationally

and we started winning.

[announcer] She's 22 years old, he's 25.

They've been together only 18 months.

[David] We're playing with the big guys.

We're part of the conversation.

They've had an amazing year.

They've won everything in sight.

Preparing for the 2002 Olympics,

we of course watched

David and Jamie carefully.

And we were considering

this couple as a strong rivalry.

[Christine] It's becoming the battle

of the West versus the East.

Jamie and David are now

North America's greatest pair.

I mean, they're the All-American kids

except they're the all Canadian kids.

How could you not fall in love with them?

I think a bit of the allure

of Jamie and David

is people wondering,

"Are they a couple, are they not?"

[crowd cheering and applauding]

[Craig Fenech] I remember exactly

what I thought when I saw Jamie and David,

which was, "Wow."

They are an "it" couple.

I knew they had star power about them,

that was clear.

And I thought,

"I could definitely monetize them."

[Jamie] Craig is a big businessman.

He didn't really have

a skating background,

which made us a little bit nervous.

But he had big plans for David and I.

I don't know sh*t about figure skating.

I mostly made my career representing

professional baseball players.

But I knew the Olympics,

it's a multi-billion-dollar business.

There are sponsorship opportunities

depending on how well you do.

And I decided that

we would bet our marketing strategy

on winning the gold medal.

[Francis Lai's

"Theme from Love Story" playing]

[Jamie] The Olympics was gonna be held

in Salt Lake City.

And so the piece of music

that we chose to skate to

was from the American movie Love Story.

Hey! What is it, Barrett?

What is this?

I'll tell you

after we cross the threshold.

[Jamie] It's an iconic movie

that everybody knew of.

I need you.

[Christine] This was all part of the plan.

I need you too.

It's not cheating. It's just

It's just smart figure skating.

To say, "Hey, we're on US ice."

"Let's come back with a program

that Americans know."

It's a very

fairy tale love story.

The skaters that they're watching

look like they're in love.

And so the fact that David and I were,

made it even better for the audience.

[David] About a year

after we started skating together,

that's when my feelings changed for Jamie.

[Jamie] What transpired over time,

was the connection that we had

was really special.

- [laughing]

- [David] We were in love.

We had fun together.

But on ice, it was business.

[announcer] The 2002 Olympic Winter Games.

[crowd cheering]

[Christine] Now, this is the moment

that everyone's been waiting for.

[announcer] The United States of America.

[Christine] The Olympics were going to be

a proud moment for the United States.

It occurred a very interesting time.

Just several months after 9/11.

It's the United States hosting the world.

[announcer 2] Canada.

[Jamie] To walk out, representing Canada

in a North American Olympics

was so amazing.

It really did feel like

we were on home soil.

I was like, "This is my Olympics."

[announcer] Russian Federation.

[Elena] We knew who we had to beat.

It was just us and them.

We were singing,

[singing] "We are waiting for battle"

[laughing] Russians would know it.

[Tamara] President Vladimir Putin

encouraged skaters to skate well.

But nobody's sent to the prison

if they don't win gold.

We don't say, "Oh, you must be first,

otherwise I k*ll you!"

I think Tamara was supremely confident

that Anton and Elena would win

the Olympic gold medal. I am sure of that.

This is as good as it's gonna get

in terms of a competition between

two of the greatest figure skating nations

in the world.

[announcer] We are just moments away

from the final warm-up.

There are the Canadians,

Jamie Salé, David Pelletier.

And behind them Elena Berezhnaya,

Anton Sikharulidze.

And in a moment,

they will open the gate for six minutes

to try and dispel some

of the Olympic butterflies.

So the warm-up,

you got six minutes to get ready.

You can literally feel the heat coming off

each other's body because of the nerves.

The tension that went into that rink,

at that moment, it was unbelievable.

[Jamie] David and I do a specific lift,

we do one throw,

and we do two jumps side by side.

And at the end,

when there's one minute remaining,

I would always leave on my own

and go do a double toe.

I started to skate around the ice

and I saw the Russians coming

and I assumed they were gonna go

diagonally down the ice and do a lift.

[Patti] Jamie's coming down the ice,

and the Russians are coming

from the other side.

And it's just like a split second,

but it was like

I wanted to scream, you know, "Look out!"

The whole arena went silent.

Like, I couldn't hear anything

and I was just stunned.

[announcer]

It is Anton Sikharulidze and Jamie Salé.

This is unbelievable.

[Jamie]

I couldn't really breathe very well.

And I also didn't know how injured

I really was because I was in such shock.

[Patti] I'm like,

"She's gonna be injured, for sure."

"For sure she's gonna be injured."

I remember thinking,

"Uh-oh. This is the last thing we needed."

And I I'll be honest with you,

I wasn't sure it wasn't deliberate.

I mean

I saw the Nancy and Tonya thing, right?

It's unbelievable that they collided,

but the music is starting,

you have to put it behind you and perform.

[announcer]

Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze.

It's the moment of truth.

I sit in my place,

and I'm nervous as hell.

Because it's the ultimate event

of all time for everyone.

Here we go.

The Russians.

[Massenet's "Méditation" playing]

[Elena] You have tunnel vision,

and that's it.

At that moment,

I just remembered everything

that Tamara taught me.

[announcer] This couple is exquisite.

[Patti] It is a beautiful program.

And the Russians were magnificent.

[Jamie] David and I were backstage,

but we chose not to look.

We chose to stay focused on us.

And I remember hearing

the audience react to something.

I immediately thought,

"Okay. They've made a mistake."

[Tamara] It was not a mistake.

It was little details.

That was a mistake, and it was

easily recognizable as a mistake.

They were still very good.

They stayed in the program,

and they skated so well.

[Patti] Their costumes are beautiful.

Their performance was polished

and such high-caliber skating.

[crowd cheering and applauding]

They finish.

And I'm sure they're thinking,

"A little stumble isn't gonna

cost us the Olympic gold medal."

[announcer] There won't be anyone close

so far in the evening.

And now what do the judges say?

[Stapleford] In figure skating,

the top countries

send a judge to the Olympic Games.

But you got to be

completely neutral and unbiased.

You're not there

representing your country.

You're there representing skating.

[Benoit] Judging figure skating

is so subjective.

Everything influences a judge,

the package, the look,

the fit, the costume.

Anything that will catch my attention

will have an influence on the result.

[Sally] There are two marks out of six.

One for technical merit

and the second one for presentation.

[Benoit] Overall, they skated well,

but they do one major mistake

that I knew everybody was gonna see

in the combination jump.

But there are two other mistakes as well,

one, landing in a throw

and the catch on the twist.

So, for me, it was three major mistakes

that could not be awarded the top marks.

[announcer] The marks for technical merit.

Five-eight, five-eight, five-seven

[Patti] When the Russians marks came up,

I remember thinking,

"Well, those are fairly high marks."

[announcer] Their marks for presentation.

Mostly five-nines.

[announcer 2]

The program is the most difficult

because the choreography weaves,

and that was given credit.

[Tamara] For four years we were preparing.

That's why when they showed the results,

I was happy.

They're winning scores,

gold-medal-winning scores.

There's no doubt about it,

and it was a surprise,

because the judges

did not really mark down for a mistake.

[Elena] We were just waiting.

Our fate was being decided in heaven.

Something was being decided somewhere.

Now we just had to wait and see.

[announcer] And skating next,

their pursuers,

Jamie Salé and David Pelletier of Canada.

She crashed with Anton in the warm-up,

but gave us the thumbs up backstage

that she's okay.

[Jamie] It was really important

not to focus on the accident.

And knowing that they had made a mistake,

I just kept telling myself,

"Focus on you."

"I'm going for gold today."

[Francis Lai's "For Me Alone"

from Love Story playing]

[David] They put the music on.

You go into a zone

that's very hard to explain.

The crowds become blurry.

You don't see faces.

[crowd cheering]

The smells are

stronger.

The music plays louder.

[crowd cheering and applauding]

We went jump, lift, twist, throw.

No problem.

First-and-half minute's done.

And then [chuckles]

I think I started to get

colors in my face again.

[music swells and soars]

I felt like

those parties I didn't go to,

the booze I didn't drink,

the money I didn't have,

it was kind of worth it.

[crowd cheering]

[Benoit]

All the transitions were seamless,

that you felt

that they were skating on velvet.

[Patti] There we go.

There we go with each element.

There we go.

[Craig] There was a truth

that came through their performance.

They were performing

to the song "Love Story"

and they were in love and you felt it.

[David] We went into a last risky element,

the throw.

[announcer] Throw a triple loop

and the gold is theirs.

[crowd cheering]

[Lai's "For Me Alone" soaring]

[Jamie] I said to him, "We did it."

And he said to me, "We're not done yet."

We had three elements to go.

But I knew that these elements

we had left were not difficult for us.

[crowd cheering and applauding]

[Christine] It was terrific.

They nailed it.

They could not have done better.

[David] We finish with a spin.

We're spinning.

I remember, "I don't want this to end."

[crowd roaring]

[Jamie] I looked up in the audience

and I saw people standing,

and I heard people screaming.

There were smiles on everybody's faces.

[announcer]

Well, the crowd has made its choice.

A standing ovation.

[Patti] We knew it was perfect.

They hadn't made a mistake.

We knew it was

an inspired performance, and

[voice breaks]

I was just so incredibly proud.

[Elena] It was impossible

not to hear the roar, the shouting.

The stands were shaking;

the building nearly collapsed.

[Jamie] I think it's what

every athlete dreams of.

Getting to the Olympics.

And and being perfect.

[fans cheering]

[Jamie] We skated back to what we call

the kiss-and-cry area,

and we were all so excited,

and we figured we've got this in the bag.

[Benoit] I enter my marks

for Jamie and David.

And I'm convinced,

they were gonna be Olympic champion.

[announcer] The marks for Jamie Salé

and David Pelletier, Canada.

Here are the marks.

[fans cheering]

[Jamie and David chuckling]

[announcer] Prolonging the suspense.

And they go up.

And they're big!

That's a little closer than I thought

it was gonna be, though.

[David] Technical mark came out.

"It's good. That's good. It's cool."

And then the artistic impression marks

came up.

[dramatic music playing]

[announcer 2] A little bit ahead,

but look at this presentation mark.

[announcer 1] The placements,

look at the placements. Look at this!

- [announcer 3] How did that happen?

- [announcer 2] No!

[announcer 1] They won!

I hear that big sound like

[imitates angry crowd]

[crowd reacting]

I said, "What? Second?"

I hear they're second. I said, "What?"

[Jamie] At first,

I was just sitting there

confused.

[David] She kept going, "It's gonna

switch, right? It's gonna switch?"

[chuckling] I had no idea

what she was talking about.

"It's not gonna switch.

It's on the screen. It's on TV."

[announcer] They won that program.

There's not a doubt to anyone in the place

except for maybe a few judges.

[Benoit]

Four judges went with first place.

And five judges went with second place.

It it it was unbelievable.

The real shock just swept over the arena.

That what you'd just seen on the ice,

what you thought

was a gold medal performance,

what the crowd is going crazy for,

is not a gold medal performance,

it's a silver medal performance.

[melancholic music playing]

The moments before we had

to go out for the medal ceremony

it was really hard for me

to get myself together.

I remember putting my head

in David's shoulder

and just saying, like,

"I can't believe this."

[announcer] Winner of the silver medal,

representing Canada,

Jamie Salé and David Pelletier.

Captured the hearts of the crowd,

after it appeared to be

a foregone conclusion

they would win the gold medal.

[David] We went to get our medal.

I remember thinking,

"You're gonna hold your head high."

[announcer]

A little tough to smile, maybe.

But the crowd helps.

And the gold.

[Elena] The podium

and everything was great.

We were proud to be Russian.

We were the happiest people in the world.

[announcer] Ladies and gentlemen,

please rise for the national anthem

of the gold medalist,

the Russian Federation.

[Jamie] It was hard.

I felt like I was missing my moment that

I had always visualized and dreamed of.

Not only getting

the gold medal around my neck,

but seeing our flag in the middle

and singing "O, Canada."

[announcer] So the Russian domination

of Olympic pairs skating

continues here in Salt Lake City.

[David] At the press conference,

you could feel tension in the air.

You could feel that the result

didn't sit well with people.

[Christine] So many journalists

were hearing from their offices

or hearing from family members,

saying it was wrong.

We're sad to come second, but nothing will

ever take away the performance we did.

And that's the way it is.

Our silver medal is worth a gold to us.

We kept our answers short and as much as

I was feeling sorry for myself,

I really didn't wanna portray that I was

being a poor sport about this whole thing.

Paul Martini,

whom you know well and respect,

said, one, you were robbed,

and two, the judges are cowards.

[voice breaks] Nothing to say I guess.

The mark the judges give is not objective

because it's not measured by

seconds, meters, kilograms, or whatever.

They judge because of their taste.

I explain, somebody likes meat,

somebody likes fish.

So who is

who is right?

Sometimes, we can understand why somebody

would maybe have that skater first,

or pair And you would have it second.

It was so close, but

on the night with those two performances

it wasn't close.

[Craig] That night, the Olympic Village

was buzzing with rumors about the result.

I was talking to all kinds of people,

and I'm thinking,

"Holy smokes, maybe there's

there's something to this," you know?

[foreboding music playing]

[phone ringing]

[Christine]

So it's about one in the morning.

And my cell phone rings.

And it's certainly

one of the most interesting phone calls

I've ever received in my career.

The source tells me,

"You will not believe what just happened

in the lobby of the judges' hotel."

[tense music builds]

[Sally] I was at the hotel

and the French judge, Marie Le Gougne,

ran over to me.

I'd known her for a few years,

'cause she's been on the judging scene

internationally for quite a long time.

And she said,

"Sally, Sally you've got to help me."

"You don't understand. I had to do it."

"It was a deal with the Russians."

It's just streaming out of her.

I don't know what to make of it.

Never seen a judge so

wrought up and tense and emotional.

Oh. My. God.

[reporter]

As we've been reporting all morning,

a major controversy has erupted

at the Salt Lake Ice Center last night.

Was the French judge pressured?

And if she was pressured,

was she also influenced?

[Jamie] And the next day, when we woke up,

journalists were saying

that one of the judges

had potentially been involved in a fix.

I just remember sitting back with Dave

going, "What?" Like, "What?"

It was all speculation and rumors

and it was like massive wildfire.

This needs to be sorted out, you know,

if something happened

with the panel of judges,

it it definitely needs to be sorted out.

The judging appeared to be a return

to the Cold w*r era.

Former Eastern Bloc countries

voting for the Russians,

Western Bloc countries

voting for the Canadians.

[Christine]

And so you're looking at the scores,

four judges for the Russians.

Russia, Ukraine, China, Poland.

The four for the Canadians

are the US and Canada,

Germany and Japan.

Four to four.

Looks like it's East and West.

But there is no doubt, as you look at it,

that the ninth vote,

the one that decides it

is the French judge,

Marie-Reine Le Gougne.

[David] Surprised. Shocked. Confused.

What does that mean?

Robbed. We're talking about the decision

to give the Russian figure skating pair

the gold medal last night.

[Elena] We watching

everything unfold on TV.

We were shocked

by what they were saying about us.

All the TV say French judge

came everywhere saying,

"Listen, I fixed my marks."

How?

Who forced her to fix?

Who? How it happened?

The morning after the event,

we were all in a state of shock.

The nine judges

have to meet with the referee.

And we all have to justify our marks.

As soon as the elevator open

the press, the media,

all the microphones,

they were following each of us.

They had to tape the door to make sure

no microphone was gonna come in the room.

I felt like it were what we see in movies.

Then I saw Marie-Reine.

[Christine] Now, all eyes are on this,

and if there's one meeting room

I ever wanted to be in, it was that one.

It was very tense,

very tense in that room.

[tense music playing]

The referee asked Marie-Reine,

"Why did you give such a mark?"

And then Marie-Reine right away said

she had not done what was right.

You could hear a pin drop.

People were crying.

People didn't know what to say.

People felt betrayed.

And then Marie-Reine said these words,

"It's all Didier's fault."

She was blaming Didier Gailhaguet,

the president of the federation,

who was her boss.

[chuckling] This is This is a big deal.

This is a very, very big deal.

In this small world of figure skating,

Didier Gailhaguet is just as powerful

as anyone could be.

Kind of like a puppeteer.

He can control what judges

to send to what events.

The French are denying any pressure

was exerted, but make no mistake,

this continues to explode

around these Winter games.

There was so much being unraveled.

The onion layers were coming off.

[Christine]

Didier Gailhaguet is denying everything.

[Didier] I don't see

why the French Federation

would press the French judge,

Marie-Reine Le Gougne,

first of all, because we have

no athletes in this competition.

I am sure that

the French Skating Association

will be Will not be charged of anything.

This sport is amazing to me.

I have defended this sport,

and defended this sport,

and defended this sport.

I cannot defend it this morning.

[Jamie] This isn't the first time

there's been corruption in figure skating.

And it's a tough one to live with.

It's a tough one to deal with.

[reporter]

Skating has historically been plagued

by criticism of biased judging.

These two judges

at the 1999 World Championships

were caught signaling each other

and accused of rigging the results.

[reporter 2]

The Russian judge on the right

is moving his foot with intent

while the Ukrainian judge is watching.

[Jamie] We've grown up with this.

It's a bias sport where I've seen

wrongful judging and cheating.

But this was the Olympics.

It took on a whole other level.

[Bill McCausland] I'm a huge sports fan.

And I particularly like the Olympics.

February of 2002, I was watching

the Winter Olympic Games,

watching the pair figure skating,

And it was quite clear

something had gone amiss.

We made contact

with the Salt Lake City office of the FBI.

They interviewed Didier Gailhaguet.

He denied that he pressured

Le Gougne, obviously.

But he said he had been contacted

two years earlier

about a different matter

by a Russian mafia figure.

And it was brought to my attention

because I'm one of the experts

in Russian Eurasian organized crime.

So while the media circus was going on,

we were able to work discreetly

behind the scenes

and assemble our investigation.

Are there crimes that took place,

and what can we do?

[Craig] The media loved a juicy story

and this was about as juicy as it got.

I really felt that we should do

every conceivable

media appearance we could.

To get them

what I considered to be justice.

[Jamie] Craig blew it up.

We went from doing maybe

two or three interviews to doing 20.

We would be lying

if we said we weren't disappointed.

I mean, we're human beings too,

and we went out there

and poured our hearts out into our

performance, and we skated fabulous.

And the Americans

really adopted us as their own.

- And I'm going to wear Canada.

- [man] Good.

Something Canadian until they give

those two kids the gold medal.

- [audience cheering]

- [man] Excellent!

I'm so angry!

[Jamie] We became overnight, you know,

not just Canada's sweethearts,

but America's sweethearts

and like household names.

You'll go down in history.

You'll be the most famous thing

that occurred in this Olympics.

[Jamie] Our faces were everywhere.

And then Jay Leno sends his jet.

I'm on The Tonight Show

with Charlie Sheen.

From Canada, please welcome

Jamie Salé and David Pelletier.

[David] It was surreal.

I mean, I know biker guys going

"They got screwed!"

Guys that never watch figure skating

who essentially, you know

I mean, Harley guys

are watching figure skating now

because because, you know,

they feel for you guys.

We felt disgusted. "Why aren't

the media coming to talk to us?"

We hear stuff like, "The Russians put

the medals around their own necks,"

and "They stole the gold."

Let's go, let's go, let's go.

[Elena] Well, of course

we feel like complete sh*t.

[reporter] Do you feel

you deserved to win the gold?

Yes. Sure.

[Tamara] We now need to defend ourselves,

because we cannot accept

those accusations.

I never gave any

anybody, anybody

any money or whatever.

This, I can give you my hand

to be cut if I am saying a lie.

- [reporter] Will you keep the gold?

- Yes, because we are Olympic champions.

There was a couple of times

when we're skating, how we think, better

and they was first, and we were second.

But we never go somewhere and said,

"Okay, let's do the big scandal."

The Russians hadn't lost the gold medal

in that event in 40 40 years,

and they weren't about to start now.

[speaking Russian]

[translator] "These are simply people

who don't know how to lose gracefully."

[speaking Russian]

[translator 2]

"Our pair was simply more artistic,

and that's why

they were given more points."

As for the allegations of a deal between

the French and Russian judges,

well, nobody here really believes that.

If anything, the feeling is that it is

the West that is ganging up on Russia

to deny it what it won fair and square.

Is it good for the sport?

And isn't it the beginning

of the Cold w*r?

[Christine] This controversy is exploding.

It's becoming one of the biggest scandals

in Olympic history.

[Tom Brokaw] In Salt Lake City tonight,

the allegations of cheating

and the judging of pairs figure skating

is a story with more twists and turns

than the routines of the competitors.

The judge at the center

of the pairs scandal went public today

and changed her story.

At first, she said she voted for

the Russians because she was pressured.

Now she said she voted for them

because they were the best.

I have judged with my soul

and my conscious, and why have

When I have decided to have

the Russian couple on the first place,

I was quite aware at that moment

I am still aware of that,

that they were the best that night.

[Craig] She clearly was a pawn in it.

No question about it in my mind.

She recanted her confession.

But by then, cat was out of the bag

and and the wheels were turning.

[reporters clamoring]

[Christine] The president

of the International Skating Union

is Ottavio Cinquanta,

so now he's thrown into this mess.

What is this?

Is an ambush?

[Christine] He runs the sport.

And if this is gonna be investigated,

he's gonna be the one investigating it.

He calls this press conference

where everyone

is just firing questions left and right.

Have you received

any verbal or written proof

that indicates that there

was a possibility of impropriety?

It's a very simple question.

It takes a "yes" or "no."

I have received not proof,

but allegation, accusation, not proof.

But I do not have the power

to change the result.

[Christine] This is quite a spot

that Ottavio Cinquanta is in.

You don't want cheating going on

and scandal going on in your sport.

But Didier Gailhaguet is one

of his colleagues, his friends.

This is a very incestuous group.

I mean, this is a European boys' club,

old, white men running figure skating.

I am not in a condition

for taking a prompt investigation.

[Christine] It's kind of unbelievable

that you've got

Cinquanta saying he's gonna wait

before he starts that investigation.

Why wouldn't you wanna sweep it

under the rug? Because it looks bad.

It's better just to hide it.

Let's hide this, right?

[Craig]

All institutions protect themselves.

I think it was getting a little too hot

for them in the kitchen,

and they wanted to tamp that down

and get back to their Olympics.

But I wanted to keep that pressure on.

[reporter] This afternoon,

Canada's Olympic delegation

asked for an official investigation.

[David] We're not saying

we deserved the the gold,

or we should've got the gold.

What we're saying is

this is wrong because there is word

that somebody cheated.

[Craig] And then suddenly we get a call

[ringing]

from somebody that had Russian accent.

And, uh, the voice said,

"Tell those Canadians

to accept the silver medal and shut up."

It was like [gasps]

"Oh, my gosh, okay, now now it's gotten

to a level that I feel unsafe."

[Bill] During the investigation,

we picked up some interesting

conversations on a wiretap

of a well-known Russian

organized crime figure

named Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov.

Tokhtakhounov is involved

in human trafficking,

arms dealing, drug trafficking,

all types of grifts across Europe.

And there were conversations

with a Russian co-conspirator

that were a bit unusual.

Tokhtakhounov seemed to have some sway

in how the votes went down

in the Salt Lake City Olympics.

Armed with those phone calls,

we were able to identify

that bribery had taken place there.

A crime that sort of strikes at the heart

of, like, the integrity of sports.

Today, a new figure entered

the great skating drama of 2002,

a man thought to be a Russian mobster.

[reporter] Investigators charged

that Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov

and others were involved

in a quid pro quo.

In return for the French judge's vote

for the Russian pairs team,

the Russians would ensure

that the French ice dancing team

would win the gold medal

in that competition.

[Christine] Ice dancing is the other pairs

skating competition at the Olympics.

The difference between

pairs figure skating and ice dancing

is in ice dancing they don't jump.

It's dancing on the ice.

The French needed

that Russian vote for ice dancing.

And the Russians needed

the French vote for pairs.

You vote for ours, we'll vote for yours.

It was corrupt, it was wrong,

it was terrible, but it was simple.

that the long arm

of Russian organized crime

reached across the globe

this past February.

[Bill] Tokhtakhounov was charged with

tampering with a gold medal event.

If convicted of those charges,

he was facing years in prison.

But he probably fled back to Russia.

I'll never believe it's possible

as long as I live.

How could something like this even happen?

Somebody tried to make

our names close with some mafia.

- Crime.

- It's not right.

Who? Mafia?

Now we're talking about Russian mafia.

Where is it?

[inhales and sighs loudly]

Where is it?

[Craig] Five days after the competition,

I got a call from the Olympic Committee

saying it had made a decision.

Craig said, "We're sending a car

at the Olympic Village,

you're gonna come to my hotel room."

[reporter] Right, we're going to pick up

live coverage of the news conference now.

As the principles take the dais.

We sat there

and watched this press conference.

We have suspended with immediate effect

the judge of figure skating,

Ms. Marie-Reine Le Gougne,

and Mr. Didier Gailhaguet

for a period of three years.

[Jamie] You thought

you would get away with it.

But you didn't.

Like, you know, karma. [chuckles]

I think this French judge, Peter,

we will never see her judge again.

[inaudible]

[Jamie] And then there was

another announcement.

We received an official proposal

from the International Skating Union

and a gold medal will be awarded

to the Canadian pair.

[all cheering]

[reporter]

Well, after a week of controversy,

Canadian skaters Jamie Salé

and David Pelletier

will finally have their golden moment.

[Jamie] They announced that we'd share

the gold medal position

with Anton and Elena.

It was just like my head was spinning.

[crowd cheering and applauding]

[hopeful music playing]

[reporter 2]

And so silver medals turn to gold,

not by the alchemist's magic,

but by decree.

[Jamie] There were rumors

and speculation, but truthfully,

I don't know if Anton and Elena

were involved in the fix.

[crowd cheering]

We were all smiling,

and everybody was doing

the best that we could

with the situation that we were in.

But it was just really uncomfortable.

The last thing on my list would've had

Ottavio Cinquanta giving me my medal.

But that's what they decided.

[Elena] They tried to make things right

saying everyone can have a gold medal.

Hooray!

World peace! [chuckling]

[David] Sport is full of corrupt people.

And the West is

just as guilty as the East.

It's a political game.

[reporter 2] Now they walk away

both champions, both winners,

and now some serious reform

in figure skating judging.

[somber music playing]