Editing Elena Berezhnaya (section)

== 2002 Olympics ==
{{Main|2002 Winter Olympics figure skating scandal}}
[[File:Vladimir Putin 5 March 2002-4.jpg|left|thumb|250px|Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze meet [[Vladimir Putin]] in March 2002]]
At the [[2002 Winter Olympics]] in [[Salt Lake City]], both pairs skated strong short programs, after which Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze were in first and Salé/Pelletier, who had a fall at the end of their program, second.<ref name=impress/> In the long program, Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze skated a good program although Sikharulidze had a stumble on a jump element before quickly regaining unison with his partner. Salé/Pelletier, meanwhile, had no obvious mistakes, although their program was easier. Four judges placed the Canadians first, while five had Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze as the winners, with the Canadians receiving higher technical scores and the Russians higher presentation scores. They were awarded the gold and the Canadians the silver. The result sparked a controversy with the media emphasizing Sikharulidze's stepout.<ref name=lat020213/><ref name=lat020216/>

The International Skating Union's Technical Committee decided to look into the matter, first approaching French judge [[Marie-Reine Le Gougne]], the only Western judge in favor of the Russian pair. She allegedly said that she had been intimidated by the head of the French skating organization into voting for the Russian pair in exchange for an advantage for the French couple in the [[ice dancing]] competition, which was to follow a few days later.<ref name="OnEdge">{{cite book|first=Jon|last=Jackson|title=On Edge|year=2005 |page=[https://archive.org/details/onedgebackroomde00jack/page/197 197]|publisher=Thunder's Mouth Press |isbn=1-56025-804-7|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/onedgebackroomde00jack/page/197}}</ref> A second gold medal was awarded to the Canadian pair, and the IOC and ISU decided to declare both pairs as Olympic co-champions.<ref name="hines-37" />