SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- American athletes continued their surprisingly successful start to the Salt Lake City Olympics Tuesday and Estonia, which had never won a Winter Games medal of any kind, came up with two on the same day.
The activities on ice and snow around the Wasatch Mountains, however, were overshadowed by a public outcry over the results of the first figure skating competition of the Games.
Amid rumors that judges had worked out an agreement in advance concerning the pairs and the upcoming ice dancing competition, the International Skating Union announced Tuesday it would conduct an inquiry into the judging in the pairs event.
The pairs gold medal was won Monday night by Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, marking the 11th consecutive Olympics that Russians have won the event.
Specators who watched the pairs long program Monday night left the arena stunned after the Russians were given the gold medal over Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier. The Canadian pair was placed first by judges from the United States, Canada, Germany and Japan. But five judges, from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, China and France, gave higher marks to the Russians.
Those within the skating community pointed to a number of awkward landings by the Russian duo and the almost flawless performance by the Canadians.
With controversy swirling around the sport, the men's short program was conducted Tuesday night and Russian Alexei Yagudin came out on top, followed by Takeshi Hondo of Japan and Timothy Goebel of the United States. Russian Evgeni Plushenko fell early in his routine and finished fourth.
"I'm trying to think of a reason or excuse, but I can't find a reasonable argument why Yelena and Anton won," said American Scott Hamilton, winner of the gold medal in 1984. "I can't understand it and it's tough (for the Canadians) to take."
Comments such as those caused the ISU to announce it would take a second look at the judging, although there was no indication that the results would be overturned. Controversy is nothing new when it comes to figure skating judging and it is unlikely the results of a major competition would be changed after the fact.
"Following the reaction of the public and the media to the results of the pairs event at the Salt Lake Ice Center last night, and to respect public opinion, the ISU is doing an internal assessment to monitor if the ISU rules and procedures have been respected," the international skating governing body said in a statement.
"Any further comment will be given when appropriate."
Hamilton, working as a commentator for NBC-TV at the Olympics, said during Tuesday night's telecast that he had heard of, "making deals since I started skating."
"If the judging is as pathetic as it was last night," he said, "it will undermine all figure skating for all time."
Figure skating is already on what amounts to unofficial probation because of widespread reports of competition fixing by judges in the ice dancing event at Nagano four years ago. Some IOC members have openly called for ice dancing to be eliminated from the Olympics.
While that tempest was raging, the United States won three medals Tuesday -- more than any other country.
Casey FitzRandolph won the men's 500-meter speed skating gold while teammate Kip Carpenter captured the bronze. And Travis Mayer took silver in the freestyle skiing moguls competition.
The United States, which has never won more than 13 medals in a Winter Olympics, already has nine and leads all nations in that department. Austria had seven at the end of Tuesday's five medal events while Germany and Norway both had six. The Americans and Norwegians led the way with three gold medals each.
Other than FitzRandolph, gold medals were awarded Tuesday to Norway's Bente Skari in the women's 10-kilometer cross country race, to Janne Lahtela of Finland in the moguls event, to surprising Carole Montillet of France in the women's downhill and to Andrus Veerpalu of Estonia in men's 15-kilometer cross country.
Estonia had never won a medal in the Winter Olympics, but joining Veerpalu on the cross country podium was countryman Jaak Mae, who won the bronze.
The Olympic schedule got back on track with the completion of the women's downhill, which was postponed from Monday because of high winds and which was also twice delayed Tuesday before the skiers could finally get going.
When they did, Montillet became the upset winner. She had never won a World Cup event before.
Montillet, 28, covered the Wildflower course in 1:39.56 with Isolde Kostner of Italy getting the silver and Renate Goetschl of Austria the bronze.
"It was so wonderful. I have a lot of emotions," Montillet said. "I just feel with my heart and I wanted to go fast. I don't know if I made mistakes, but I wanted to go fast."
Montillet and the rest of the French team have dedicated the Salt Lake City Games to former teammate Regine Cavagnoud, who was killed last October after colliding with a trainer during a practice run.
"I am very happy for (Montillet)," Goetschl said. "She is one of the best skiers in the world. She has gone through some bad luck and I am so happy for her. She is a good girl."
American Picabo Street, meanwhile, saw her Olympic career come to an end with a 16th-place finish. Street has come back from a series of major injuries and had hoped to finish things off with what would have been an unlikely medal.
"But all in all," she said, "it was a great day."
The speed skating triumph for Fitzrandolph came by the narrowest of margins. After the first run on Monday, he held a .19 of a second lead over Japan's Hiroyasu Shimizu.
Shimizu skated in the next-to-last pairing Tuesday and turned in a time of 34.65. That meant Fitzrandolph had to beat 34.84 to win the gold. He just made it, producing a time of 34.81. Carpenter, meanwhile, edged Gerard van Velde of the Netherlands by just .02 of a second to win the bronze.
Tuesday also saw the Olympic debut of the 1998 gold medal winning U.S. women's hockey team and the Americans had no trouble to start the Games, crushing Germany, 10-0. The American women's curling team also enjoyed a successful start to the Olympics, coming from two points behind in the last end (inning) to beat Japan, 8-7, and then outlasting Sweden in an evening match, 6-5.
In men's hockey, Germany joined Belarus in reaching the final round. Germany secured its spot by downing Latvia Tuesday night, 4-1.
There will be six medal events Wednesday, including the big hill ski jumping, alpine combined, biathlon competitions over 7.5 kilometers for women and 10 kilometers for men and women's 1,500-meter short-track skating.
In addition, the final two runs of the women's luge will be held, where Germany was in position for a medal sweep. Sylke Otto, Barbara Niedernhuber and Silke Kraushaar were 1-2-3 after the first two runs Tuesday.
