YES

After one of the biggest scandals in Olympic figure skating ended last Friday, both the Canadian and Russian pairs now have something in common – a gold medal. Yet one of the lingering questions is “Did the Canadian pair Jamie Sale and David Pelletier really deserve to receive the gold?” The answer is yes they did.

After the short program, Sale and Pelletier were in second place behind Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze. During the long program, held last Monday night, Sikharulidze fell out of a jump. Sale and Pelletier skated a clean, flowing performance after the Russian pair, and knew when they got off the ice they had won the gold. Yet when the scores came up, the judges placed them in second instead of first.

Why in the end be denied the gold medal when you earned it with a clean performance? To have it all come down to the judges’ placement and not the actual technical and presentation scores is ridiculous.

Sale and Pelletier earned their gold medal for the performance they skated in the long program. The Russian pair should have gotten silver yet are now sharing the gold. The decision to give the Canadians’ the gold was the correct choice by the International Olympic Committee and International Skating Union.

Sale and Pelletier deserved their gold medal. They performed the best. Period. The Russians did not. Corrupt skating judges and vote swapping has gone on for too long and needs to end.

• Stefanie Green

NO

What horror came to tarnish the Olympic pairs skating events when the Russian skaters Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze were awarded the gold medal amidst allegations of judge corruption? However, what a glorious day when the Olympic Committee reviewed the event and declared corrupted judgement. The Canadians, David Pelletier and Jamie Sale, should have been awarded the gold.

Does anybody else see a problem with awarding two couples with gold medals? Is the silver really that bad? It isn’t as though the Canadians left empty-handed. After all, the judging of sporting events is a matter of subjectivity. Corruption aside, I don’t see any absolute proof that the Canadians would have won the gold. Maybe the bronze medallists would have won, whoever they were…

Instead, the world latched their collective hearts onto the Canadians and created a ridiculous melodrama that culminated in the awarding of two sets of gold medals. So who really won the event? Considering the judges were favoring the Russians, what’s to say other skaters hadn’t possibly skated better than anyone who received a medal in the end?

The Canadians should be commended for their graceful acceptance of the silver. It was neither the Russians’ nor the Canadians’ fault the judging was corrupt, but just as events are not given an opportunity for “do-overs,” neither should the awarding of medals.

• Michelle Demeter