The French figure skating judge Marie Reine Le Gougne and the president of the French ice sports federation, Didier Gailhaguet, were suspended from any involvement in international skating for three years today after the International Skating Union ruled that they had colluded to fix the result of the pairs event at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
They were also excluded from participating in any capacity within the skating union in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.
The skating union cited Le Gougne for misconduct, determining that she had acted on Gailhaguet's instructions instead of on her own judgment when she awarded the Russian pair Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze first place in the free program, ahead of the Canadian pair Jamie Salé and David Pelletier.
She was also cited for violating skating union rules by not reporting before the end of the pairs event that Gailhaguet had instructed her to give first place to the Russians, allegedly in exchange for Russian support for French skaters in the ice dancing competition.
