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ISU boss defends Sochi Olympic figure skating judging

Yuna Kim

Korea’s Yuna Kim celebrates holding her flag at the end of the Figure Skating Women’s free skating Program at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, February 20, 2014. REUTERS/Alexander Demianchuk (RUSSIA - Tags: OLYMPICS SPORT FIGURE SKATING)

REUTERS

The International Skating Union hasn’t received a formal complaint from South Korea about figure skating judging in Sochi, the ISU president said while defending its judging system Thursday.

The Korea Olympic Committee said last week it would file an official complaint, along with the Korea Skating Union, about “unreasonable” and “unfair” judging that awarded Russian Adelina Sotnikova the Olympic gold medal over South Korean Yuna Kim in Sochi.

The complaint would “demand the [ISU] look into the makeup of the judging panel and whether a fair judgment was possible.”

That complaint hasn’t reached the ISU yet.

“As soon as we receive something official from the Korean Skating Union or the Korean Olympic Committee, we will comment,” ISU president Ottavio Cinquanta said at the World Championships in Saitama, Japan, on Thursday, according to The Associated Press.

The Italian Cinquanta said a complaint needed evidence.

“Figure skating is an extremely difficult sport,” Cinquanta said, according to Agence France-Presse. “So the judging system is not easy [to be understood].

“In addition, when point of view and opinion are expressed and are criticism, that is one thing, but criticism of wrongdoing needs to be presented with evidence, so that we can make a difference between opinion and something more precise,” he said, according to Reuters.

One of the judges from Sochi is married to a top Russian figure skating federation official and was seen hugging Sotnikova shortly after she won gold. Another was suspended one year as being part of the 1998 Olympic ice dance fixing scandal.

“We are not perfect, as also the skaters are not perfect,” Cinquanta said, according to Reuters. “Sometimes, they do a mistake. Mistakes are possible, because we are human beings.

“But the best human beings we may use are those sitting in the arena. If one is seated in the row No. 32 or 34, he or she does not have the same view as the official has sitting at the rink.”

Skater breaks Kim’s record at World Championships

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