Olympic figure skaters Jamie Sal? and David Pelletier are considering ditching their amateur status because they are "fed up" with poor judging.

In an exclusive interview with the Royal Gazette Sal?'s father, Bermuda resident Gene Sal?, said his daughter had told him the current Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City would be her last.

The news came on the day the Canadian pair were awarded gold medals to replace the silver versions they won in the pairs competition on Monday.

That decision provoked worldwide outrage when the judges went against the popular belief that Sal? and Pelletier had skated a flawless routine and deserved the gold.

Instead, the honour of being named Olympic champions went to Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze - despite the fact Sikharulidze stepped out of a double axel and the Russians failed to match the emotion of their long-time rivals.

The furore has been far and away the biggest story of the Utah Games and led to French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne being suspended by the International Skating Union (ISU) after she was slapped with a misconduct charge for voting for Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze in a 5-4 split decision.

After cancelling Le Gougne's votes and handing joint first place to the Canadians, ISU president Ottavio Cinquanta said there was no evidence that there was pressure on the judge from Russia or Canada. But Cinquanta said: "There is an allegation from outside about the French federation. This is not my allegation. It is not our allegation. We will be investigating it."

Gene Sal?, who was at rinkside to see his daughter perform earlier in the week, said yesterday he had mixed feelings about the medal upgrade.

"Like everyone else, I am happy for them that they got it but the whole thing has just left a bitter taste in everybody's mouth. It has dragged on for so long," he said.

"I wish that judge hadn't done what she did. Like Jamie said on the news last night (Thursday) `Hey, I just want this to be over.' She said "Enough is enough, just end it one way or another'.

"This morning in an interview she said that she didn't even want the gold medal anymore."

However, Sal? said he believed that pressure from journalists had led to the decision.

"I think they (the IOC) want to get on with the rest of the Olympics. The media, especially, have not been covering other events because they have been busy doing detective work on this one," he said.

He said his daughter had not been effected by being in the glare of the spotlight all week, quite the contrary.

"I think Jamie lives for it, I really do," he said. "They have been on `Good Morning America' twice, on `Letterman', on `Jay Leno' - she lives for that stuff, so I don't think it has bothered her a whole lot.

"They are getting a lot more Sal? said he felt for the other innocent parties in the skating scandal - Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze.

"Those two Russian kids are just like my kids - they worked hard to get where they are and just because somebody behind the scenes cheats that has nothing to do with them," he said. "You can't take the Russians' medals away, they deserved a medal too - maybe not the gold one but they got it anyway and you can't undo it."

In a conversation with his daughter, Sal? said she had strongly hinted at turning professional.

"I think they are fed up with the judging, and going pro, you do one show and you get five thousand bucks. Four minutes skating for five thousand bucks, would you want to stick around waiting for judges to give you marks?," he said.

"I hope they don't. Personally, I like the amateur stuff but you can't make a living doing it unless you are the best."

Revealing his conversation, which he said was a secret outside of Bermuda he added: "I said `Jamie are you going to go to another Olympics?' and she said `Dad, if you're asking me right now, no. We're done competing amateur, we are done with the judges'. She said she was fed up with the judging."

Sal? said he agreed with his daughter's point of view.

"They keep saying every year it's getting better and getting better and this is a classic example of it not getting better," he said. "The same old stuff is coming into play. On TV last night they showed a clip from Lillehammer (site of 1994 Winter Olympics) and one judge is shaking his foot to another judge. It was a signal to do what he was supposed to do."

Sal? said he did not believe Le Gougne was the only one in the wrong in this instance.

"Sure the French judge screwed up and was pressured into doing something, but what about the Chinese judge? Was he blind too?," he said. "What about the German judge? Was he blind? Why are they picking on the French one?

"The Chinese judge did the same thing but they are singling out the French one because they are pretty sure something went on.

"But hey, there was five of them gave the Russians first place marks, not one."

See also Page 25.