PARIS — In stripping Jordan Chiles of her bronze medal, the International Olympic Committee is not following the precedent it set for itself in the most publicized double-medal controversy in Olympic history.
At the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, in what became known as the French judge scandal, the IOC gave out two gold medals — to Canada and Russia — rather than take the gold medal from the Russian pairs skaters nearly a week after they received it, as it should have.
At the time, the Olympic figure skating saga had captured global attention and overshadowed practically everything else at those Olympics. So the IOC and International Skating Union wanted to end it as quickly as possible with a resolution that pleased as many people as possible, hence the double gold medals in a second medal ceremony six days after the first, in the same place, on the ice in the skating venue.
An emailed request for comment to IOC spokesman Mark Adams about why the IOC isn’t doing the same thing here with the gymnastics controversy was not immediately answered Sunday afternoon.
At those 2002 Winter Games, Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze won the gold medal on the night of Feb. 11 over Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier even though the Russians had made a mistake in their long program while the Canadians had not.
A few hours later, USA TODAY Sports reported that the French judge, Marie-Reine Le Gougne, broke down in the lobby of her hotel and told her fellow skating judges that she had been forced to put the Russian pair first in a backroom deal to get the Russian judge’s vote for the French team in the ice dancing competition later in the Olympics.
The next day, the ISU announced that it would conduct an investigation into the matter, leading to the eventual suspension of both Le Gougne and French federation president Didier Gailhaguet.
The double-medal ceremony, with all four skaters standing on top of the podium, was held Feb. 17.
