This is a classic...classic scandal that is!It was close...desperately close! The Russians Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze had skated well (I know, I know! Amongst hardcore skating fans that is up to interpretation!). The Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier take the ice for the most important free skate of their lives. The music is "Love Story" and the program begins.
The program is over and it's a hit! The crowd goes wild. Canadians flags appear to have simply sprung out of nowhere. Half the women in the arena are in tears, what a moment!
The marks are close, desperately close...and...and...and...silver. Olympic Silver. The fan outrage is immediate...boos and cat-calls last for what seems like an eternity. How could this happen? This isn't the way the story is supposed to end.
After the event the fan outrage intensifies. There are calls for the Russians to give up their Gold Medal, others saying "re-skate!" A judge is found to have tampered with the marks to please her federation...what sensation! The magazines go nuts...Jamie and David are everywhere.
In the end the ISU and IOC get together and do the only thing they can do...issue a second Gold Medal to Jamie and David (I do believe they had to give the Silver back though!). This event marked the beginning of a new era in Figure Skating...this event was the birth place of the new scoring system!
And as Jamie and David prepare to welcome into the world their first child, we can say without doubt that they provided one of the most memorable skating events of all times at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games.
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