Marie-Reine Le Gougne
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Marie-Reine Le Gougne (; born 1961) is a French figure skating official and competitor. She was a central figure in the
2002 Winter Olympics figure skating scandal At the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City, it was alleged that the pairs' figure skating competition had been fixed, in which a French judge had compromised scores. The Russian team was awarded the gold. After limited investigation of ...
.


Biography

Le Gougne was born in
Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...
. She took up figure skating as a child in France. She competed at a high level and won the bronze medal at the French National Championships twice, in 1975 and 1977. She decided later to become a skating judge, and progressed rapidly up the ranks. By the time she was 25, she had an appointment to judge international figure skating competitions. At the age of 36, she judged at the
1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 ( ja, 長野1998), was a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Japan, with some events taking place in the ...
, considered a high honor for a figure skating judge. She was promoted with a referee's appointment, and selected again to judge at the
2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 ( arp, Niico'ooowu' 2002; Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; nv, Sooléí 2002; Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), was an internation ...
in Salt Lake City, Utah. Le Gougne had the reputation of being a competent judge. With the support of the
Fédération française des sports de glace French Federation of Ice Sports (or French Ice Sports Federation; french: Fédération française des sports de glace or ''FFSG'') is the national governing body for a number of ice sports in France. It manages completely different sports discip ...
(FFSG, the French Skating Federation), she was planning to run for a position on the International Skating Union's Technical Committee at that organization's Congress later in 2002.


2002 Winter Olympics scandal

Le Gougne became known for her role in the
2002 Olympic Winter Games figure skating scandal At the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City, it was alleged that the pairs' figure skating competition had been fixed, in which a French judge had compromised scores. The Russian team was awarded the gold. After limited investigation of ...
. Although four other judges also placed
Yelena Berezhnaya Elena Viktorovna Berezhnaya (russian: Елена Викторовна Бережная, born 11 October 1977) is a Russian former pair skater. With partner Anton Sikharulidze, she is the 1998 and 1999 World champion, 1998 Olympic silver medali ...
and Anton Sikharulidze ahead of the crowd favorites
Jamie Salé Jamie Rae Salé (born April 21, 1977) is a Canadian former competitive pair skater, and a current motivational speaker and conspiracy theorist. With her former husband David Pelletier, she is the 2002 Olympic Champion and 2001 World Champion. ...
and
David Pelletier David Jacques Pelletier (born November 22, 1974) is a Canadian pairs figure skater. With his former wife Jamie Salé, he was the co-gold medal winner at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. They shared the gold medal with the Russian pair Elena Ber ...
in the pairs free skating, Le Gougne was immediately singled out for suspicion by television commentators and other observers. When she returned to the officials' hotel after the competition, she was confronted in the lobby by Sally Stapleford, then the chair of the Technical Committee, who began to question her about her judging of the event. Le Gougne broke down in a tearful outburst that was witnessed by a number of other skating officials who happened to be present in the hotel lobby. She said that she had been pressured by the head of the French federation, Didier Gailhaguet, to put the Russians first as part of a deal to give the ice dancing gold to the French ice dance team. She repeated these statements in the judges' post-event review meeting the following day, but in the following days and weeks, she issued a number of contradictory statements and retractions. She later stated that she had truly believed the Russian pair deserved to win and had been pressured to say the Canadians were better. Both Le Gougne and Gailhaguet were eventually barred from the 2006 Olympics in Turin and suspended from the sport for three years by the International Skating Union which never made any serious investigation into the events. She has never judged a competition since. After the Games, Le Gougne wrote a book about her experiences, ''Glissades à Salt Lake City'' (). In June 2006, she ran for the presidency of the FFSG and of the Federal Council of the FFSG, but was not elected. She remained president of the Eastern League of the FFSG. She also ran for the FFSG presidency in 2010 and lost, receiving only 37 votes (less than 5%). , Le Gougne lived in her home town
Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...
where she is running a shiatsu massage business in the Petite France district.On a retrouvé... Marie-Reine Le Gougne, la juge déchue du patinage
Le Monde, 27 April 2015.


References

* Joy Goodwin, ''The Second Mark''. . * Jon Jackson, ''On Edge''. . *
Sonia Bianchetti Garbato Sonia, Sonja or Sonya, a name of Greek origin meaning wisdom, may refer to: People * Sonia (name), a feminine given name (lists people named, Sonia, Sonja and Sonya) :* Sonia (actress), Indian film actress in Malayalam and Tamil films :* Sonia ...
, ''Cracked Ice''. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Le Gougne, Marie-Reine 1961 births Living people Figure skating judges French memoirists French women memoirists Sportspeople from Strasbourg