Olympic skating row pair banned

Skating judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne will be banned from the 2006 Winter Olympics

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- The French judge and federation chief at the centre of the Olympic figure skating scandal have been banned from the sport for three years each for misconduct.

The rulings against judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne and French skating head Didier Gailhaguet were announced on Tuesday following a two-day hearing of the International Skating Union council, the Associated Press reports.

Lawyers for the French pair said they planned to appeal. The ban will also include the next Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, scheduled for 2006.

The pair were accused of manipulating the scoring of the pairs skating competition at the Salt Lake City Games, a controversy which led to the unprecedented awarding of duplicate gold medals.

Le Gougne was suspended indefinitely by the skating union in Salt Lake City after initially declaring that she voted for Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze under pressure from Gailhaguet.

Le Gougne later withdrew the accusations, claiming she had been under emotional distress and was harassed by ISU officials into making false claims against Gailhaguet.

Based on Le Gougne's alleged misconduct, the ISU threw out the judges' marks and gave duplicate golds to Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier.

The suspensions, effective immediately, end on April 30, 2005.

ISU president Ottavio Cinquanta said the council found Le Gougne guilty of misconduct on two counts -- voting for the Russian pair on Gailhaguet's orders and not reporting Gailhaguet to the ISU for his pressure tactics.

Gailhaguet was sanctioned on the charge of instructing Le Gougne to give first place to the Russians.

Le Gougne and Gailhaguet both denied any wrongdoing and sought to clear their names. But they claimed they didn't get a fair hearing, maintaining the ISU stacked the case against them to justify the decision to give second gold medals.

Le Gougne and Gailhaguet have 28 days to file an appeal. They first have to go through the ISU's internal appeals process. After that, the case could go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.