Kesher Talk

In March 2002, Israeli ice dancers Sergei Sakhnovsky and Galit Chait won a bronze medal at the World Figure Skating Championships in Nagano, Japan, edging out a Lithuanian pair who finished in fourth place. Within days, a petition was circulating among skaters and judges saying that the Israelis' medal was "not justified."

"How much did it cost you to buy that medal?" another skater reportedly asked Sakhnovsky.

"There is big money involved with the Israeli couple, and you cannot fight against that," Povilas Vanagas, one of the Lithuanian skaters, told the press.

"The stereotype of 'buying' a medal," New York-based skating expert Alina Sivorinovsky told the Forward, is classic antisemitism. And it's particularly ironic considering that the Israel Ice Skating Foundation is struggling financially.

Sivorinovsky — author of "Inside Figure Skating" and "Sarah Hughes: Skating to the Stars" — is doing her part to help, by speaking out against antisemitism in the sport and donating proceeds from her forthcoming mystery novel, "Murder on Ice," to the foundation, which began its new skating season two weeks ago.

posted by William @ 10/16/2003 08:56:16 AM