South Korean sports officials said Tuesday that "they are preparing to file a formal complaint" with the Int'l Skating Union over the judging of the women’s figure skating competitions at the Sochi Olympics, according to the AP. South Korean fans "were outraged" when Yuna Kim was denied a second straight Olympic figure skating Gold Medal at the Sochi Games and "blamed questionable judging." Officials at the Korean Olympic Committee and the Korea Skating Union said that their complaint "will be filed with the International Skating Union’s disciplinary committee calling for an investigation into the judging." Korea Skating Union officials said that they "are gathering necessary documents and materials" (AP, 3/25). In Tokyo, Jack Gallagher wrote that the formal complaint is "good news." The ISU and IOC "thought the controvesy over the outrageous decision" to give the Gold to Russia's Adelina Sotnikova "would die down." In a move "that displayed both wisdom and tact," the KOC and KSU "studied the rules at length" with the assistance of legal counsel and noted the presence of judges Alla Shekhovtseva and Yuri Balkov as violations of the IOC’s Code of Ethics. Shekhovtseva is Russian. She is the wife of Valentin Piseev, the former president of the Russian Figure Skating Federation and its current general director. Balkov is from the Ukraine. He was suspended for one year for being part of an attempt to fix the ice dancing competition at the 1998 Nagano Games. The "fact that he was in a position to be judging at the Olympics again is a complete disgrace" (JAPAN TIMES, 3/25).
