South Korea has officially filed its complaint over figure skating judging at the Sochi Olympics to the International Skating Union, nearly two months after Yuna Kim won silver behind Russian Adelina Sotnikova in a controversial decision.
The Korea Skating Union (KSU) filed a complaint over the makeup of the judging panel for the women’s free skate rather than the results of the competition, according to Yonhap News, reporting that the KSU believes the panel’s composition was in violation of the ISU’s ethical rules.
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.
The Russian figure skating vice president headed the three-person technical panel that decided on difficulty levels (and therefore points rewarded) for skaters’ spins and jumps.
“We are not perfect, as also the skaters are not perfect,” ISU president Ottavio Cinquanta said in March, according to Reuters. “Sometimes, they do a mistake. Mistakes are possible, because we are human beings.”
The next step could take three weeks -- deciding whether the ISU or the Court of Arbitration for Sport will handle the matter -- according to the German press agency DPA, quoting an ISU official.
