British Official Drawn Into Skating Row

Britain's Sally-Anne Stapleford is the latest official to face accusations in the figure-skating scandal even though Jamie Salé and David Pelletier have received their gold medals.

Marie-Reine le Gougne, the French judge at the centre of the dispute, claims she admitted to collusion with other judges - when placing the Russians Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze ahead of the Canadians in the pairs eight days ago - under pressure from Stapleford, a member of the International Skating Union's technical committee.

"I felt threatened physically and that continued inside the shuttle [bus] and when I reached the hotel," said Le Gougne. There, she alleged that Stapleford "assailed me, scolding me for having voted for the Russians. That's when I broke down. I judged in my soul and conscience. I considered that the Russians were the best. I never made a deal with an official or a Russian judge".

Le Gougne said it was Stapleford, born and raised in Britain but who also holds a Canadian passport, who came up with the idea that she may have been pressured to vote as she did by Didier Gailhaguet, president of the French federation.

Stapleford denied the allegation. "I can't say exactly what she said because it's confidential but it was in the letter I wrote with two others," she said. "There were numerous witnesses."

Le Gougne's account has been contradicted by Richard Pfenning, the referee. He claims she broke down in the post-competition meeting on the morning after the event.

"It was a rambling avalanche of words," he said. "I hadn't asked her a question. She had been teary-eyed through a lot of the meeting. It was an outburst: 'You don't understand. You don't understand. We're under an awful lot of pressure. My federations, my president Didier, I had to put the Russians first.'"

The dispute was settled by giving the second-placed Salé and Pelletier their own gold medals. They received them in a special ceremony with the Russians at the Ice Centre on Sunday. The two flags were raised simultaneously, the Russian anthem played first followed by the Canadian. "This was better than expected," said Pelletier. "The four of us are part of history and that's something that is great."

An unnamed competitor will undergo an out-of-competition drug test after a bag containing a sample taken at random had not been properly sealed.

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