Controversy over figure-skating judging

VANCOUVER - Olympic figure skating, beset eight years ago by a judging scandal that resulted in days of hand-wringing and a completely revamped scoring system, has already produced more controversy here, days before the Games even begin.

A U.S. judge, who will not be at Vancouver, told the Toronto Globe and Mail that he had sent e-mails to 60 judges and officials reminding them to pay careful attention to scores for such elements as the transitions between jumps.

The judge, Joe Inman, said he did so after hearing Evgeni Plushenko, the defending Olympic gold medalist, criticize judges at the European championships for scoring his transitions lower than those of France's Brian Joubert and suggesting that sometimes judges ignored those moves entirely.

The Russian still won that competition.

The sport's revised scoring system gives points to every element, including those transitional moves that link them.

Didier Gailhaguet, president of the French skating federation, reacted to news of Inman's e-mails by suggesting that the sport's "North American lobby" already was busy politicking the judges.

Gailhaguet, you may recall, was at the center of the 2002 scandal in Salt Lake City, where a Canadian pairs team that appeared to have skated flawlessly finished behind a Russian duo that had not.

A French judge later conceded that Gailhaguet had pressured her to give the Russians better scores. After days of press conferences and blaring headlines, officials decided to award gold medals to both teams and to change the sport's 6.0-based scoring system.

Comedian Stephen Colbert, whose Colbert Nation helped generate sponsors for U.S. speedskaters, is headed for Vancouver while

The Colbert Report

is in repeats next week.

Many Canadians, though, have been put off by Colbert's frequent mockery. As a pseudo pundit, Colbert likes to elevate the United States above all other countries, making the Olympics prime fodder for parodic patriotism.

He has called Canadians "syrup-suckers" and "Saskatche-whiners," and said Canadian history is a euphemism for a sex act so depraved, he can't say it on TV.

Colbert still jokes that he's going to Vancouver to find out "What is Canada? Or more importantly, why is Canada?"

But now that foreign athletes have received more ice time, Colbert says, "I've forgiven Canada. ... I'm there to celebrate Canada at this point."

As part of an arrangement with NBC and NBC Universal Sports chairman Dick Ebersol (who recently appeared on "The Report"), Colbert will be allowed to film inside the Richmond Olympic Oval. In exchange, he will join Bob Costas for commentary Feb. 17 on NBC.

But for all his satire, it's clear Colbert has a genuine love of the Olympics.

"It's a festival," he says. "What a great, rare honor it's been to be helpful in any way to these beautiful athletes. I'm really in awe of what they do and I want to be there to support them."

Russia's Alex Ovechkin says he's not thinking about it yet. Nor, he says, has he begun talking trash with his Swedish, Czech, Canadian, or American teammates on the Washington Capitals.

"No, not yet," Ovechkin said yesterday in Montreal before the Capitals played the Canadiens.

But a friend of Ovechkin's, linemate and Olympic rival Nicklas Backstrom of Sweden, tells a different story.

"There's a bit of trash talk going on," Backstrom said. "But nothing that big."

Ovechkin will be joined on the Russian team by Capitals teammates Alexander Semin and Semyon Varlamov, with Backstrom and Tomas Fleischmann of the Czech Republic rounding out Washington's list of five Olympians.

When asked about the 14-game winning streak the Capitals were riding into Montreal and whether he had ever been on a similar run at any other level of hockey, Ovechkin didn't have to think long to come up with a snarky answer.

"World championships, probably, when we beat Canada," he said, referring to the 2008 tournament with a big gap-toothed smile before adding, "in the final."