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SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) - Russia has sent a letter of protest to the head of the International Ski Federation (FIS), claiming that biased judging denied freestyle skier Olga Koroleva an Olympic gold medal in the women's aerials event on Monday.
Koroleva was leading after the first jump of the final, but had a low score in the second and was edged out of the medals, finishing fourth.
Australia's Alisa Camplin won the gold, with two Canadians, Veronica Brenner and Deidra Dionne, taking silver and bronze.
"She (Koroleva) definitely could have won today, if not the gold, then at least silver or bronze, if it wasn't for the biased judges," Russian Olympic Committee spokesman Gennady Shvets told Reuters.
Lev Kofman, the president of the Russian freestyle skiing federation, echoed him, arguing: "Such biased judging can only diminish the popularity of our sport, as athletes will lose the desire to compete."
Shvets said an official protest could follow once the Russians had examined all the facts.
"The American and Canadian media has staged a smear campaign against Russian athletes from day one at these Winter Olympics," he added.
"They were behind the attempt to take away our gold medal in figure skating, now we have another scandal. If we don't stop this campaign now I don't know where we will end up."
French figure skating judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne was suspended last week for misconduct after she was one of five judges to vote for Russians Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze ahead of Canada's Jamie Sale and David Pelletier for the pairs gold medal.
The International Olympic Committee later decided to award a duplicate gold medal to the Canadian pair.
Koroleva was leading after the first jump of the final, but had a low score in the second and was edged out of the medals, finishing fourth.
Australia's Alisa Camplin won the gold, with two Canadians, Veronica Brenner and Deidra Dionne, taking silver and bronze.
"She (Koroleva) definitely could have won today, if not the gold, then at least silver or bronze, if it wasn't for the biased judges," Russian Olympic Committee spokesman Gennady Shvets told Reuters.
Lev Kofman, the president of the Russian freestyle skiing federation, echoed him, arguing: "Such biased judging can only diminish the popularity of our sport, as athletes will lose the desire to compete."
Shvets said an official protest could follow once the Russians had examined all the facts.
"The American and Canadian media has staged a smear campaign against Russian athletes from day one at these Winter Olympics," he added.
"They were behind the attempt to take away our gold medal in figure skating, now we have another scandal. If we don't stop this campaign now I don't know where we will end up."
French figure skating judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne was suspended last week for misconduct after she was one of five judges to vote for Russians Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze ahead of Canada's Jamie Sale and David Pelletier for the pairs gold medal.
The International Olympic Committee later decided to award a duplicate gold medal to the Canadian pair.
