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 The judge in question was one of a total
of six judges - Natalia Stepanova (BLR), Gabrielle Stummer
(AUT), Natalia Lashchinskaya (RUS), Galina Marina (LAT),
Ursula Sohlenkamp (GER) and Irina Deryugina (UKR) - suspended
in August 2000 following an investigation into the judging
at the 2000 European Championships in Saragossa, Spain which
revealed what the FIG felt to be serious misconduct by the
majority of the judges participating. 1997 World Champion
Elena Vitrichenko (UKR) had placed only 19th in the individual
rankings after preliminaries, a fact which provoked an unprecedented
show of support for the gymnast and protest against the
judging panel as a whole from the audience. Vitrichenko
withdrew from the rest of the competition in protest, but
was treated like a heroine by the crowd and officials like
Klaus Lotz, president of the European Gymnastics Union (UEG).
In its press release, the FIG gave no details of the judge
who had submitted the appeal, but did not hold back when
assessing her actions in Saragossa. The judge, the text
reads, was " guilty of scandalous and unsportsmanlike
behaviour and serious mistakes at the European Championships."
At least one of the suspended six would beg to differ and
has openly spoken out against the sanctions: Ukrainian Irina
Deryugina, who has been locked in much - publicised feuds
with first 1996 Olympic champion Ekaterina Serebrianskaya
and then Elena Vitrichenko - told Russian newspaper Izvestia
that her lawyers had filed an appeal because she felt wronged
by the FIG. "I want moral compensation," she said
during last year's Moscow Grand Prix, "money isn't
that most important thing to me, the FIG has broken laws.
My lawyers have filed an appeal in Lausanne but I will go
even further."
For the FIG, however, the matter finally seems closed:
"The appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sports
in Lausanne represented one of the final acts of this legal
battle, the stakes of which were the mere respect of sports
ethics in judging."
Nora Schuler
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