South Korean skating and Olympic officials are calling on the International Skating Union (ISU) to investigate controversial judging at the Sochi Olympics that awarded Russian Adelina Sotnikova a gold medal over Yuna Kim.
“Together with the Korea Skating Union (KSU), we have decided to file an official complaint [to the ISU] over the controversial ruling and will demand the body look into the makeup of the judging panel and whether a fair judgment was possible,” a Korea Olympic Committee (KOC) official said Friday, according to the Korea Times.
The KOC called the women’s figure skating results in Sochi “unreasonable” and “unfair,” according to the Wall Street Journal, which reported the complaint is unlikely to change results given it’s coming more than a month after the competition.
The KSU and KOC hope an investigation will prevent not only a similar judging dispute from occurring again but also potential bias against future South Korean skaters, according to reports.
An official with the KOC said it will send a joint letter with the KSU to the ISU after obtaining Kim’s consent. The official said the two South Korean bodies will demand a thorough investigation into the makeup of the judging panel in Sochi and also ask the ISU take extensive reform measures to prevent a recurrence of such judging disputes.
The 2010 Olympic champion Kim, 23, led by .28 of a point after the short program Feb. 19. Sotnikova, 17, outscored Kim by 5.76 points in the free skate the following night to win gold by a comfortable margin.
Both skated clean programs, and Sotnikova had one more triple jump. Of course, that’s not all that goes into scores, and many journalists, fans and skaters questioned the judging.
Kim has said she’s put the situation behind her, retiring and preparing for special ice shows in Seoul in May.
