2002 Winter Olympics

Top 2. Feb 8, 2002 8:07 PM

» Whirlwind - Re: 2002 Winter Olympic Games Utah

In response to message posted by JenL_2:

Thanks for posting the pic of the WTC flag. I missed the very opening of the cerimonies and didn't see it (actually, was making a bowl of pudding). Nice to see all the flags, customary dress and all entourages get a nice round of applause.

-- posted by Whirlwind

Feb 16 Men's 1000 meter Short Track Slide show

Top 3. Feb 20, 2002 8:55 PM

» JenL_2 - Apolo Ohno!!

Our local favorite! This from MSNBC.com:

Ohno advances to final in 1500

American seeks first gold after spill in Saturday’s 1000 final

<img src="http://a799.ms.akamai.net/3/799/388/74f2..." width=470 height=197>
Apolo Anton Ohno of the U.S. (from left), Italy's Fabio Carta, Britain's Nicky Gooch and Hungary's Kornel Szanto skate during the first heat of the men's 1500 meter event.

BREAKING NEWS
ASSOCIATED PRESS

SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 20 — Apolo Anton Ohno is doing just fine. With six stitches in his left thigh, Ohno returned to the ice Wednesday night for the first time since he crawled his way to a short-track silver medal after a crash. With apparent ease, the 19-year-old American made it through his qualifying heat and the semifinals in the 1,500 meters, the second of four races in which he’s a medal contender.

ALSO ADVANCING TO the final race were Fabio Carta of Italy, Kim Dong-Song of South Korea and Bruno Loscos of France. Other finalists were still to be determined.

Ohno as he glided onto the rink for both his qualifying races to a thunderous ovation from the sellout crowd at the Salt Lake Ice Center, where growing interest in the sport was evident from all the people standing outside in a chilly drizzle hoping to buy tickets.

He did some light stretching but gave no indication of being bothered by his injured leg, the result of the last-lap crash that ended his hopes of winning gold in the 1,000 Saturday night. In one of the signature moments of the Salt Lake City Games, Ohno was out front as he turned into the final turn, but he was taken out by a crash that wasn’t his fault.

After crashing into the boards — cutting himself with his own blade in the process — Ohno managed to stagger to the finish, throwing his injured leg over the line to claim a silver medal. Australia’s Steve Bradbury, the only skater who wasn’t involved in the crash, cruised across the line to win an improbable gold medal.

Ohno rested his injured leg Sunday but worked out the last two days.....

Ohno finishes 2nd — but gets gold

South Korean disqualified for cutting off American in final lap

<img src="http://a799.ms.akamai.net/3/799/388/549b..." width=470 height=153>
>Apolo Anton Ohno of the United States, wearing helmet No. 369, apparently was pushed by Kim Dong-Sung of South Korea, at left, during the men's 1,500-meter short-track speed skating final.

SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 20 — Apolo Anton Ohno crossed the line second again. Only this time, it was good enough for the gold medal. In a shocking reversal of his first Olympic misfortune, the 19-year-old American won gold in 1,500-meter short track when South Korean star Kim Dong-Sung was disqualified for blocking Ohno with a half-lap to go.

OHNO, WHO SKATED with six stitches in his left thigh, dropped to his knees in the center of the rink. Kim, who already had started a victory lap with a South Korean flag, threw down the banner in disgust. Li Jiajun of China won the silver and Marc Gagnon of Canada took the bronze.

Ohno’s first attempt at gold, last Saturday, ended with him sprawled on the ice in the 1,000, the victim of a crash he didn’t cause. He still managed to crawl to the finish, sticking his injured leg over the line to claim the silver behind Australia’s Steven Bradbury, the only skater not involved in the crash.

Even though he slashed his leg with his own skate, Ohno didn’t seem bothered by the injury in the 1,500. After running last for much of the 13½-lap race, he brought the sellout crowd to its feet with a daring pass on three skaters with two laps to go, moving up to second.

He still had to get past Kim, the defending World Cup champion.

Coming off the next-to-last turn, Ohno used a burst of momentum and dipped to the inside to get around the South Korean. But Kim moved into his path, prompting Ohno to throw up his arms.

Having cut off Ohno, Kim cruised around the final turn and crossed the line believing he had won gold. Ohno pumped his fist as he crossed the line, then smiled as he looked toward the replay board.

Kim grabbed his national flag and began to celebrate, but Ohno remained on the ice until the official results were posted.

When the chief referee skated over to turn in his decision, the crowd gasped in anticipation. Then the announcer revealed the decision: Kim was disqualified, Ohno was the gold medalist.

“I wanted to wait as long as possible because I knew there would be a lot of traffic,” Ohno said. “I set up the Korean real nice and he came over on me hard.”

Asked if he knew the Korean would be disqualified, Ohno nodded his head and replied: “Definitely.”

“It’s an amazing feeling. So many years of hard work,” he said.

Ohno hugged his coaches and embraced his father, Yuki, who gave up the jetsetting lifestyle of a hairstylist and settled down to raise his son alone after Ohno’s mother walked out of his life when he was 1.

After going through the wrenching disappointment of failing to make the U.S. team in 1998, Ohno rededicated himself to the sport and became its brightest star. He came to Salt Lake City with hopes of winning four gold medals, but that ended in his very first event, the 1,000, on Saturday. Ohno was out front as he turned into the final turn, but a four-skater crash sent him crashing into the boards — cutting himself with his own blade in the process.

Ohno managed to stagger to the finish, throwing his injured leg over the line to claim a silver medal, one of the signature moments of the Winter Games. The American rested his injured leg Sunday but worked out the last two days and had no problems when he stepped on the ice Wednesday.

He yawned as he glided onto the rink to a thunderous ovation from the sellout crowd at the Salt Lake Ice Center, where growing interest in the sport was evident from all the people standing outside in a chilly drizzle hoping to buy tickets.

Inside, an Ohno cheering section featured men and women wearing fake dark soul patches on their chins, emulating his trademark facial hair.

After all, there was a final to rest up for.

Ohno skated with a relaxed style during his first race of the night, resting both arms on his back through the early stages of the 13½-lap race.

The pace quickened, and Ohno moved up to second place behind Carta with two laps to go. They finished in that order, putting them both in the semifinals.

<img src="http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/a..." width=449 height=253>
Apolo Anton Ohno skates close on the heels of Kim Dong-Sung of Korea during the men's 1500 meter short track speed skating finals at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2002. Kim crossed the line first but was disqualified, giving the gold medal to Ohno.(AP Photo/Doug Mills)

<img src="http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/a..." width=449 height=316>
Kim Dong-Sung of Korea looks down at his country's flag after he learned he was disqualified in the men's 1500 meter short track race at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2002. Kim crossed the finish line first but because of his disqualification the gold medal was awarded to Apolo Anton Ohno of the United States. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau)

<img src="http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/a..." width=335 height=450>
Apolo Anton Ohno reacts after learning he has won the gold medal in the men's 1500 meter short track speed skating race at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2002. Ohon captured the gold after Kim Dong-Sung of Korea was disqualified. (AP Photo/Doug Mills)

<img src="http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/a..." width=302 height=450>
Apolo Anton Ohno of the United States celebrates with his gold medal for the men's 1500 meter short track finals during the awards ceremony at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2002. (AP Photo/Doug Mills)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=ss

....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Top 4. Feb 20, 2002 10:22 PM

» Kirk - Re: Apolo Ohno!!

In response to message posted by JenL_2:

GREAT Jen!

I just saw it on TV.

I find Short Track one of the more exciting events in the whole Winter Olympics since it is not against a clock but against other athletes head to head.

Apollo Ohno is quite a good sport too.

-- posted by Kirk

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=st...

Top 5. Jul 31, 2002 4:19 PM

» SteveT - Skategate Part II

Italy to Extradite Olympic Skating Suspect
Wed Jul 31, 5:46 PM ET

VENICE, Italy (Reuters) - Italy plans to extradite to the United States a Russian who was arrested Wednesday on charges of scheming to fix ice skating competitions at the 2002 Winter Olympics ( news - web sites), police sources said.

The Uzbekistan-born Russian is accused of fixing two events on behalf of the French and Russians in a conspiracy that engulfed the Salt Lake City games with scandal.

Police sources said Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, a long-time resident in Italy, was arrested at a luxury villa in the fashionable northwestern seaside resort of Forte Dei Marmi in Tuscany.

He was immediately brought to Venice and is currently being held in prison. The Venice anti-mafia police is spearheading the operation.

The police sources said the anti-mafia unit had had Tokhtakhounov, who owns a number of residences around the country, under surveillance for the past two years for on suspicion of other crimes including money laundering.

They added that it was thanks to this surveillance, in particular the tapping of his phone calls, that led the United States to issue an arrest warrant on July 22.

Police sources added that computer and documents had been confiscated when the holiday home of Tokhtakhounov, who is over 50, was raided earlier Wednesday.

Italian police will hold a news conference in Venice at 5:30 a.m. EDT Thursday.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=st...

Russian Mobster Accused of Fixing Olympic Skating
Wed Jul 31, 5:58 PM ET

By Gail Appleson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An alleged Russian mob figure was arrested on Wednesday on charges he schemed to fix two ice skating competitions at the 2002 Winter Olympics ( news - web sites) on behalf of French and Russian competitors in a conspiracy that engulfed the Salt Lake City games in scandal.

[Photo]
Reuters Photo

[AP Photo Photo]
AP Photo
[Slideshow] Slideshow: Mobster Charged in Olympic Skating Scam

Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, a Russian citizen who was born in Uzbekistan, was arrested at his resort residence in northern Italy on conspiracy charges filed in Manhattan federal court. Federal prosecutors said they were alerted to the scheme by Italian authorities who had the defendant under surveillance for other possible crimes.

The charges allege Tokhtakhounov, who had previously lived in France, carried out the scheme to generate goodwill with French authorities to get an extension of his French visa.

Prosecutors described him as a major figure in international Eurasian organized crime who has been involved in drug distribution, illegal firearms sales and trafficking in stolen vehicles. He was believed to have fixed various beauty pageants in Moscow in the early 1990s.

"The complaint alleges that the long arm of Russian organized crime reached across the globe this past February and into Salt Lake City with a pair of fixes for the Winter Olympics," Manhattan U.S. Attorney James Comey told a news conference.

Comey said that the United States will seek to extradite Tokhtakhounov to face charges in New York. The complaint says the defendant has a resort home in Forte dei Marmi in Lucca Province and residences in Rome and Milan.

Tokhtakhounov was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery related to sporting contests. Both carry maximum penalties of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The charges are related to the Olympic scandal involving French skating judge Marie Reine Le Gougne, who said she was pressured by French figure skating President Didier Gailhaguet to vote for a Russian couple in the Olympic pairs.

The complaint alleges that Tokhtakhounov and others agreed as a "quid pro quo" in return for the French judge's vote, the Russians would ensure that the French ice dancing team would win the gold medal in that competition.

The International Skating Union ( news - web sites) voted on April 30 to suspend Le Gougne and Gailhaguet for three years. They were also barred from participation in the 2006 Winter Games in Turin. Both Le Gougne and Gailhaguet recently announced they were dropping plans to fight the ban.

Le Gougne was accused of deliberately under-marking Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier under pressure from Gailhaguet in favor of Russian rivals Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, who won the event in a 5-4 judging split.

CANADIANS SHOCKED

The scandal shook the Olympics and, in an unprecedented move, gold medals were eventually also awarded to the Canadians.

Canadian officials expressed shock at Wednesday's news. "We are disturbed that there are suggestions that crime is related to sports," said Mike Chambers, president of the Canadian Olympic Committee. "We hope it is a single episode,"

In February, Gailhaguet denied he tried to pressure Le Gougne to vote for the Russians in the pairs final in exchange for Russia's vote in the ice dancing competition.

The French ice dancing team of Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat won by a 5-4 vote of the judges at the Salt Lake Games. Anissina, born in Russia, skated for the French team. The Russian team of Irina Lobacheva and Ilya Averbukh finished second.

The complaint alleges Italian authorities intercepted phone conversations between Tokhtakhounov, a "female ice dancer" and her mother. Authorities did not identify the skater by name.

Although Comey said the investigation is continuing, he would not comment on whether the skater, her mother or any other specific individuals were targets of the probe.

According to the complaint, the ice dancer told Tokhtakhounov on March 7 she had not called him from the United States because she was forbidden to do so by the French Skating Federation president.

"The FBI ( news - web sites) was interviewing (the FSF president) for a few days ... (because) information came in ... that (Tokhtakhounov was) involved with the results," the ice dancer allegedly said.

The complaint alleged that during the call the dancer expressed her belief that she would have won the competition without the defendant's assistance, stating "the Russians did not put us in first place."

Averbukh, half of the Russian ice dancing team that placed second, told Reuters that he did not recall hearing of Tokhtakhounov in the closely knit world of skating.

"Well, since the FBI and the prosecutors are involved in this case I'll be paying more attention to what comes out of it, Averbukh said. "But in any case, I don't think we (Averbukh and Lobacheva) will be crying and begging like Canadians Sale and Pelletier for the gold medal."

-- posted by SteveT

Top 6. Aug 4, 2002 9:01 AM

» SteveT - Re: Skategate Part II

In response to message posted by SteveT:

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/storie...

IOC: More Skating Changes Possible
By KRYSTYNA RUDZKI
ASSOCIATED PRESS

MANCHESTER, England- IOC president Jacques Rogge said changing the figure skating medals from the Salt Lake City Olympics "is definitely not impossible" if the U.S. case against a reputed Russian mobster proves he fixed the judging.

Rogge said on Saturday that the International Olympic Committee needs more information in the case against Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, accused of arranging a vote-swapping deal between judges in the pairs and ice dancing, before making a decision.

"We do not rule out anything, it will depend on what we find," Rogge said in Manchester, England, at the Commonwealth Games. "A rewriting of the results is definitely not impossible.

"We first have to watch and see what really comes out. We want the full truth. Is it a clear case of corruption? We don't know. Is a telephone call enough to be considered as a corruption case?"

Rogge said athletes should not be punished for the "wrongdoing of some judges," but "the information that we have received is too much to be ignored."

"Scrapping events or sports at the Olympic Games, I think that would be a wrong measure," he said.

IOC vice president Thomas Bach agreed that nothing should be ruled out, "not even the annulment of the Olympic results."

Rogge was not happy to have the IOC linked with organized crime.

"We don't like people like this gentleman to be involved in sport," Rogge said. "This is one of the reasons why the IOC has always insisted on a ban on gambling on Olympic events because then you attract these kinds of possibilities."

The biggest judging scandal in Olympic history already has resulted in duplicate gold medals awarded to Canadian pairs team Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, who initially were judged second to Russian pair Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze.

In Italy, Tokhtakhounov called the charges against him a "farce," contending he doesn't even follow ice skating. Elsewhere, outraged figure skaters threatened to sue over media coverage of the investigation.

It all made for another hectic day in the scandal-marred world of figure skating, facing its biggest brouhaha since the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan affair before the 1994 Winter Games.

Tokhtakhounov was arrested Wednesday in Italy and faces extradition to the United States. U.S. prosecutors say he plotted for a French judge to vote for the Russian pairs team, and a Russian judge to vote in turn for the French ice dancing team. Both teams won.

Much of the case is based on phone conversations recorded during an investigation into the mob, and Italian police say Tokhtakhounov indicated in those conversations that six judges could be involved.

U.S. prosecutors say a "co-conspirator" connected with the Russian Skating Federation did the legwork after being contacted by Tokhtakhounov. The co-conspirator was not named in the complaint filed in New York, nor were any of the judges or other people who might have been involved in the scheme.

After meeting Tokhtakhounov in a Venice jail, lawyer Luca Saldarelli said his client told him he worked "as an intermediary in international affairs" and was innocent.

"He's absolutely surprised. He doesn't know anything about the Salt Lake City Olympic Games," said Saldarelli, who indicated earlier his client would fight extradition. "He's not even a fan of figure skating."

Saldarelli said on Saturday that a preliminary hearing to validate his client's arrest under separate Italian charges would be held Tuesday at the Venice jail. Tokhtakhounov will likely be held in Venice throughout the traditional Italian vacation period of August, with the extradition process beginning sometime thereafter.

The lawyer also said Tokhtakhounov's wife left for Moscow on Friday, and his daughter would be going later this week.

In France, Didier Gailhaguet, the suspended head of the French skating federation, denied having any contact with Tokhtakhounov "before, during or after" the Olympics.

But he said the federation met with him in the spring of 2000, at Tokhtakhounov's request, about a possible partnership "for the benefit of a Paris ice hockey club."

The skating at Salt Lake City was marred when French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne said the day after the pairs event that she had been pressured to vote for the Russians. She later recanted but still was suspended, as was Gailhaguet. Le Gougne has said she doesn't know Tokhtakhounov.

As a result, duplicate gold medals were awarded to the Canadian pairs team that finished second to Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze.

Later, France's Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat won gold in ice dancing. Investigators say the winning female ice dancer - presumably Anissina, although she is not named in court papers - spoke to Tokhtakhounov on the phone after the event.

The Russian team and Anissina threatened on Friday to take legal action for what they called "defamation" against them in the case.

Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze said they would sue U.S. TV networks - though they didn't say which ones - for showing their pictures in connection with the case.

Anissina also threatened action, though she didn't specify what kind.

"I categorically denounce all the slanderous, unjust, and disgraceful allegations that were made against me after the arrest of Mr. Tokhtakhounov," Anissina said in a statement released by the French Skating Federation.

-- posted by SteveT