SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- Special performances were turned in from early in the morning to late at night at the Winter Games Wednesday and they all were unfortunately shoved into the background by a figure skating scandal that has grown so ugly the International Olympic Committee president decided to step in and demand action.
From one venue to another, there were extraordinary efforts Wednesday, including the second gold medal of the Games for both Simon Ammann of Switzerland in ski jumping and Ole Einar Bjoerndalen of Norway in the biathlon.
The overpowering luge contingent from Germany swept the medals in women's singles. And American Bode Miller, despite almost falling in the downhill portion of the alpine combined and then almost falling again on the first slalom leg, somehow managed to win a silver medal.
Finally, in the concluding event of the night, one marred by a major injury to one of her fellow competitors, 15-year-old Gi-Hyun Ko won the gold medal in the women's 1,500-meter short-track speed skating race.
Throughout the day, however, new details emerged in the controversy that began Monday night when Russians Enela Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharuildze won the gold medal in pairs figure skating over Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier despite the fact that most skating experts felt the Canadian team was clearly the best.
The referee for that competition, American Ronald Phenning, sent a letter to International Skating Union President Ottavio Cinquantana of Italy saying he believed there were judging irregularities in the pairs event.
NBC-TV reported Wednesday Phenning wrote that letter because he heard French judge Marie Reine Le Gougne say during the regular post-competition judges' meeting Tuesday that she voted for the Russians because she had been pressured to do so by her national figure skating association.
Cinquantana held a news conference Wednesday to discuss the situation and it wound up being a 75-minute session in which the head of the world skating governing body was barraged with often hostile questions and did little to restore public confidence in the sport.
Finally IOC President Jacques Rogge made the rare move of summoning Cinquantana for an early-evening talk. And instead of keeping the visit secret, the IOC let it be known that the meeting had taken place -- a move seen as putting pressure on the skating union.
"I asked President Cinquanta to take adequate action as quickly as possible because of the high urgency of the matter," Rogge said in a statement.
Carrard read the statement at a news conference.
"The message was, as it always is, about fairness to the athletes," Carrard said. "President Cinquantana guaranteed to us that he will take all measures so that the competition goes on in the most correct way."
Canadian officials have officially protested the pairs judging, asking that Sale and Pelletier also receive gold medals.
Cinquantana said the entire matter would discussed at a previously called ISU meeting next Monday and that whatever is decided there would be final. He said at various times during the news conference that, "I do not have the power to change the results," and that changing the results would be, "very difficult."
Finally, he said:
"I would be a liar if I said it (changing the results} was impossible and I am not a liar. But there is no precedent."
Figure skating has long lived with allegations that judges trade their votes, but such a scandal in the midst of its most high-profile event could have long-term implications. There are those within the Olympic movement, former IOC vice-president Richard Pound among them, who have called for ice dancing to be banned from the Games because of past scandals.
Revenue from television networks could begin to dry up if those networks decided they did not want to be associated with a sport that has repeated controversies.
There was no controversy, however, at the ski jumping and cross-country venues, where celebrations were in order for double gold medal performances.
Ammann, who won gold on the 90-meter ski jumping hill Sunday, grabbed another one on the 120-meter hill Wednesday.
"I am trembling. There are no words for this," Ammann said.
And at the Soldier Hollow cross-country venue, Norway's Ole Einar Bjoerndalen won his second biathlon competition of the Olympics. He added a 10-kilometer triumph Wednesday to his victory in the 20-kilometer race two days earlier.
It was Norway's fourth gold medal of the Olympics and was soon followed by its fifth, captured by veteran Kjetil Andre Aamoot in the alpine combined. Aamoot, who has won 16 Olympic or World Championship medals, took the lead after the downhill portion of the event and then held off hard-charging American Bode Miller.
Miller was 15th after the downhill after barely staying upright, but moved up to fifth after the first slalom run even though he almost fell on a section of the course that took out six skiers. A perfect second run almost brought Miller the gold, but Aamoot held to win by just .28 of a second.
Miller's medal was the 10th for the United States, just three shy of the American record for a Winter Olympics.
The other gold awarded during the afternoon Wednesday went to Germany's Kati Wilhelm in the women's 7.5-kilometer biathlon and then as the sun fell behind the mountains, Sylke Otto, Barbara Niedernhumber and Silke Kraushaar won gold, silver and bronze for Germany in the luge.
Those were the last three of six medals won by Germany Wednesday, allowing that country to double its medal total to 12.
In the final medal event Wednesday night, the South Koreans placed 1-2 over 1,500 meters in short-track skating with Gi-Hyun Ko followed by Eun-Kyung Choi.
During a semifinal heat of the men's 5,000-meter relay, South Korean Ryoung Min took a hard fall into the wall and suffered what doctors described as a lower back injury. He was taken to a local hospital for evaluation, although he had full movement of his arms and legs.
With the ice dancing event scheduled to start next Friday, the spotlight will continue to fall on figure skating.
The Toronto Globe and Mail reported that sources had told the newspaper the pairs competition was fixed as part of a deal involving the ice dancing event.
The newspaper quoted sources as saying the ice dancing results have already been determined and that the Canadian pair of Victor Kraatz and Shae-Lynn Bourne were slotted to finish fifth.
Sources quoted by the newspaper, but not named, said deals were made for Italians Barbara Fusar-Poli and Maurizio Margaglio to win the gold in ice dancing ahead of Russians Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh.
The story further said that French skaters Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat were set to win a bronze medal as part of the deal.
Chinquanta said the ice dancing judges would not be changed for the Olympic competition.
In the pairs competition, judges from France, Russia, China, Poland and Ukraine voted for the Russians while judges from the United States, Canada, Germany and Japan gave the Canadians their first-place votes.
The results were controversial because it appeared to most skating experts that the Russian pair struggled throughout their free program while the Canadians skated a near-perfect routine.
The ISU president said no official protest had been filed, but the head of the Canadian Olympic delegation, Michael Chanbers, sent a letter to the ISU Wednesday asking for an independent inquiry into the judging of the pairs event.
"In order to do justice to the athletes who have competed in this event and those who will compete in the future, an independent inquiry with the authority to review judging is necessary," the letter said.
"We are very disturbed by the results in the pairs free program competition. It was apparent for whatever reason, themarks of the judges did not reflect accurately the actual performances. The sport of figure skating is too important a part of the Olympic Games to be put at risk through unfair judging."
On-ice action will be in the spotlight Thursday night when the men's gold medal is determined. Russian Evgeni Plushenko will take the lead into the free skate portion of the competition.
The only other gold medals at stake Thursday will be in both the men's and women's cross-country pursuit races and women's 500-meter speed skating. Canadian Catriona Lemay Doan turned in the fastest time in the first leg of that race Wednesday.
