U.S. Figure Skating backtracks on Russia ban

At his sport’s recent national championships, U.S. Figure Skating President Sam Auxier issued a surprising but admirable shot across the bow at Russia’s massive, state-sponsored doping machine when he said Russia does not belong in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games.

Unfortunately, U.S. Figure Skating is trying to take it all back.

In a Jan. 26 letter to the International Skating Union obtained by USA TODAY Sports, Auxier and USFS executive director David Raith labeled Auxier’s statement “his personal opinions,” adding, “These opinions were Auxier’s own and not the official position of U.S. Figure Skating.”

And what is the official posi- tion of the organization?

“U.S. Figure Skating ’s position is to await the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and ISU’s decision on this matter, and U.S. Figure Skating will abide by the findings.”

The letter went on to say that USFS “fully supports clean sport and for all athletes to compete on a level playing field.”

This month at the 2017 U.S. championships in Kansas City, Mo., Auxier became one of the rare international sports leaders, and the first U.S. national governing body official, to have the courage to say Russia does not belong in the Pyeongchang Olympic Games.

“I don’t think they should be able to,” Auxier said. “I mean, it’s state sponsored, it was ... a huge program, well-coordinated, to cheat, and they should pay a pretty stiff penalty. I think the only way the IOC and the ISU maintain any level of integrity is to take a strong stand and weigh a strong penalty for those actions.”

With those remarks, Auxier joined the national anti-doping organizations of 19 countries in calling for Russia’s banishment. The president of the German Olympic Committee also has called for Russia to be banned from the 2018 and 2020 Olympic Games if Russian sports leaders are found to have known about the state-sponsored doping.

It will surprise no one to find out that there are political forces at work in international figure skating, so it wasn’t long before one of the most notorious scoundrels in the history of the sport — France’s Didier Gailhaguet, the mastermind of the 2002 Olympic pairs judging scandal — piped up about Auxier’s comments.

Long since returned from a three-year expulsion for forcing the French judge to cheat in a deal with the Russians at the Salt Lake City Games, Gailhaguet fired off a letter to the ISU on Jan. 25, also obtained by USA TODAY Sports, that mischaracterized Auxier’s comments in order to launch into a predictable defense of Russian figure skating.

The USFS letter pulled no punches on Gailhaguet’s selfserving insertion into the Auxier story, calling it “a disservice to all ISU members.”

With this kind of preamble, the 2018 Olympic figure skating competition can’t get here fast enough.