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CFSA boss blasts dance judges
MINNEAPOLIS (CP) -- To hell with diplomacy.Ice dance judging has to change, and Canadian Figure Skating Association boss David Dore is not going to play Mr. Nice Guy forever with International Skating Union panels he says shafted Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz all season.
"I feel bitter," Dore said in an interview Saturday.
On Friday night, Canada's champions were presented with bronze medals at the world championships for the third year in a row. Dore says they deserved better. Such was also the case at the Olympics in February when they were kept off the podium altogether, he said. He kept quiet.
"I thought in my own mind that between Nagano and here that maybe something might change in the environment of the dance event," he said.
No.
Don't blame ISU president Ottavio Cinquanta because Cinquanta sincerely wants to reform the judging system, says Dore.
He then zeroed in on who he sees as the culprits.
"On Friday night, there were two mediocre free dances" by eventual gold medallists Anjelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsyannkov of Russia and by Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat of France, he said. "And then there was one spectacular one."
Bourne and Kraatz had skated last. Two of the seven judges chose them as the overall winners. But the majority prevailed.
"I felt they won," Dore said. "I think it's an outrageous use of power by a group of judges who seized the wrong moment to do something that was wrong for the sport."
Talk of rules changes is a waste of time, he says.
"That's cosmetic. It's not going to change anything. There is nothing wrong with the event but there is a lot wrong with how the event is being judged."
He said he was angry to learn that in a meeting Saturday the ISU ice dance committee deemed the final results to be appropriate. That's the last straw, he says.
"Now is the time that there has to be some pressure. The ice dance technical committee has to decide where it wants to go from here because I saw it's an outrageous abuse of power.
"I am appalled that a group of people would do what they did. I think it's a sin. I think it's a real shame."
Despite the frustrations, Bourne and Kraatz told him Saturday that they intend to return to battle on next season, Dore said.
"I have to say that for two people to have that done to them and be willing to say the next day that they will commit to go on, that is quite amazing. The CFSA has to support them and we have to support trying to make some changes. Let's go right to the nub of it: let's get the thing judged the way it was skated."