While I agree with Phil Hersh about the media circus that surrounded the skating controversy (Tribune, Feb. 17), if this is what it took to bring the era of vote trading and fixing to an end, it was long overdue. It is a shame other athletes did not have the wrongs done to them corrected, but if those athletes had spoken up, instead of “accepting the situation gracefully,” they might have prevented future corruption and spared other athletes the same heartache.
As for America appearing to have bullied the International Olympic Committee, how presumptuous to assume Jacques Rogge bowed to media pressure. There’s an equal possibility he wanted to send the clear message that this is not Juan “Sweep It Under the Rug” Antonio Samaranch’s Olympics, that “business as usual” wasn’t going to be tolerated. And it’s about time that message got sent.
Mr. Hersh seems to have lost sight of the central and most important element here–the athletes. Media blitz aside, future athletes of all nationalities have benefited from the end of the cover-up. They now have at least some hope that their performance will be judged on its merits, instead of it being predetermined before they ever step on the ice. And isn’t that the least they deserve?
