Twenty years later, the Salé-Pelletier case is still talking about | you saw?

I know my storyOn Monday, the 47-year-old Quebec fired during an interview on the show Penelope.

Her 14-year-old son doesn’t know much about this story. So he was able to tell how much credit for this documentary sparked discussions with his father.

We talk that sport is a reflection of society and that sometimes you go through a treeThe former figure skater said.

I try to explain to him that you can do the right thing, train and work hard, and sometimes it just doesn’t work out the way you want to. He continued life is not a long quiet river. It is important to do things right. The rest, life will be organized with it.

nightmare

David Pelletier does not appear to have retained bitterness in the face of the February 2002 events that shook the world of figure skating and led to the reform of the sport.

He and Jimmy Salle had witnessed the loss of the Olympic gold medal after a controversial decision by the referees. For most people, the rule of Russians Elena Bereznaya and Anton Sikharulidze at the end of free skating was incomprehensible.

Pelletier remembers that they got off the rink, we got on board and their results came out. I expected 5.8 and 5.9 [sur 6,0] And I saw about 5.7. I had enough experience to know that the door was open and a mistake was made. I told myself that with the perfect performance, the gold medal was ours.

Jimmy Sla and David Pelletier in free skating at the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City

Photo: Getty Images / Gary M. Prior

Sala and Pelletier gave an impeccable performance on a topic love story. The Canadian duo were delighted. Then the results came. Albertan and Quebec greeted them with dismay and the crowd angrily.

I’m having my worst nightmare. You have nine judges. I told myself that the worst thing that could happen was losing the gold medal by the judge. That there is a split decision (5-4).Peletier said.

And that’s exactly what happened. Inside the jury, Benoit Lavoie was shocked by the fate of the Canadian skaters.

The Quebec judge explained that I was the first to be surprised. I had a strong reaction right after that, which we are not supposed to show. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and hearing…I thought for a while that I might have done something wrong. I was wondering: “Did you miss a jump?” I doubted.

« I could not believe it and tried to understand. Only when I saw the results sheet arrive did I see the “split board” (5-4). Immediately, my eyes turned to Marie Ren Li Guogen. »

A few months earlier, at the competition, the French judge had told her that she had promised to give her the right to vote for the Russian couple at the Olympics.

I was like, “It can’t be.” I’ve never been to the Games before, Lavoie said, but I told myself you can’t get to that level by cheating like that. When I saw the paper with the notes, I said to myself, “I did it.”

unexpected result

Critics, especially new information regarding Judge Le Gougne, who suffered from outside pressure, persuaded the organizing committee to award a second gold medal, to Jimmy Sala and David Pelletier, to the pairs event.

The Canadian and Russian national teams review their gold medals.

Photo: The Canadian Press/Lionel Serono

As keepers, we’ve all known Sylvie Frechette’s story. It took two years to fix the problem. In figure skating, I never expected that in five days he would overturn the decisionPeletier said.

This wasn’t really a good time. We got a gold medal so everyone can close the trap and move on. But over the years people in the skating world have convinced me that if they made that decision, it was because it was the right one.