The International Skating Union has cut in half a suspension that it gave a Russian judge last spring, even though the judge has a history of improper behaviour.
Sviatoslav Babenko was handed a three-year suspension after the world figure-skating championships in Helsinki. But yesterday, the ISU announced it was cutting his enforced holiday back to 18 months. He'll be able to start judging again on Sept. 27.
The ISU gave no reasons for its decision.
In effect, Babenko's suspension lasted only one season because during the summer months of 1999 and 2000, he wouldn't have had any major judging assignments.
Yet, Babenko had two previous warnings of possible collusion with other judges, one of them at the 1997 world championships in Lausanne, Switzerland, where the ISU was obviously trying to make an impression on the International Olympic Committee. A regular member of that audience was IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch.
Babenko got into trouble in Helsinki when CTV cameras caught him improperly communicating with Ukrainian judge Alfred Korytek during the pairs event. A member of the audience tipped CTV off about the misconduct.
Korytek, 62, was handed a two-year suspension at the same time. but after he appealed, it was dropped to one year. Although he was the judge with the deciding vote at the 1994 Olympics, when Oksana Baiul of Ukraine won, he had no previous black marks on his record. Korytek, however, was the father of Baiul's first coach.
The ISU made no public announcement of the reduction of Korytek's suspension until months later, saying it was an internal matter.
But the matter became very public at the world championships when tapes were made of Babenko, 47, and Korytek improperly communicating with each other by toe-tapping, head nodding and eye contact during the closing seconds of performances by Chinese and Polish skaters.
The cameras didn't actually catch them speaking to each other, as some news reports say, but judges aren't allowed to communicate in any way.
The two judges ranked eight of the top nine skaters exactly the same.
Babenko was given the more severe punishment because he had been warned twice previously about improper conduct during the 1995-96 season and at the 1997 world championships in Lausanne.
During an appeal before the ISU, Babenko told the hearing that he didn't consider the warnings to be actual warnings; he saw them as only "friendly advice."
While Korytek was a fixture at world championships, the Lausanne event was Babenko's first. The judges sat close together in the cramped rink in Lausanne, and were less exposed than normal because they sat in a little well.
Babenko was Judge No. 4 on the panel for the men's event. Judge No. 5 was George Iashvili of Georgia.
During the men's short program, Babenko and Iashvili talked and exchanged marks, usually during the last 10 seconds or so of the performance, when the music and clapping were loud enough to muffle their voices.
Both showed almost identical placements for the 30 men. They both placed Alexei Urmanov of Russia first. Urmanov won the short program.
However, someone in the audience saw all the chatter and told referee Britta Lindgren of Sweden. She had talked to Babenko before the long program.
Although Babenko told the ISU appeals committee that he considered her words "friendly advice," Lindgren told him that if she caught both judges communicating again during the long program, she'd haul them off the panel and replace them.