Quebecer David Pelletier scrolls through his memories of the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002, and it sounds like Forrest Gump, the character from the Oscar-winning film of the same name, everything seems so unreal.
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Within days, legendary Wayne Gretzky asks to meet him, then former gymnast Nadia Comaneci stops him on the street for a photo. Only a few months after the attacks on the World Trade Center, he comes to share a box with the mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani. For his part, the host Jay Leno, of the “Tonight Show”, makes a private plane available to his partner Jamie Salé and him so that the skaters find themselves on his set.
Photo supplied by Jamie Sale
Wayne Gretzky’s biggest impact on Edmonton’s Jamie Sale, and also his gold medal-winning pair skating partner, David Pelletier, came at the Salt Lake Olympics in 2002.
“This Olympic experience was mine and I wouldn’t trade it with anyone else,” says Pelletier, 20 years later, recalling the huge scandal experienced by the Canadian couple in the pair figure skating event.
On February 11, 2002, Salé and Pelletier believed they had won the gold medal after a clear round in the free program. A scheme involving the French Ice Sports Federation and this now famous judge named Marie-Reine Le Gougne, however, results in a second place for the Canadian couple. They finish behind the Russians Elena Berejnaïa and Anton Sikharulidze. Salé and Pelletier, victims of an injustice, suddenly become the main subject of the Games.
“For me, these Olympic Games, it remains extremely positive, said Pelletier. But today, I look at it with a certain detachment. It was another chapter of my life, I don’t recognize this guy who is on the ice when I see the images.
Dealing with Controversy
In two decades, Pelletier’s life has indeed changed a great deal. Based in Edmonton, he now works as a skating instructor with the Oilers of the National Hockey League.
“Professionally, I changed trajectory, but it remains an incredible life experience, he says about the Salt Lake City Games. People remember it because our performance was good, yes, but maybe mostly how we handled the controversy.
“One thing I wanted to do at the Olympics was go watch the other athletes during the competitions, but I didn’t really get the chance… We had so many interviews.”
Meet Gretzky
First there was the scandal, then a second wave of encounters with the media, when the president of the International Skating Union, Ottavio Cinquanta, and the president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, announced, barely five days after the competition, that the Canadian couple would also get a gold medal, just like the Russian couple.
Now detached from the world of figure skating, Pelletier retains only the positive. And countless anecdotes…
“The Canadian men’s hockey team was in Salt Lake City and I was told that Gretzky [NDLR : directeur exécutif de la formation] wanted to meet us at the Olympic Village, says the athlete. It was unbelievable for me who grew up loving hockey. We were also invited to attend a practice. I remember being also very impressed to meet Mario Lemieux.