Tara Lipinskiis reflecting on one of the biggest scandals in competitive figure skating history, 20 years later.

“It has been 20 years and I don’t really think there has been a deep dive or comprehensive look at this event since then,” said Lipinski of the four-part docuseries,Meddling, which started streaming on Peacock earlier this month.

At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Canadian figure skating pair Jamie Salé and David Pelletier lost the gold medal to Russians Anton Sikharulidze and Elena Berezhnaya. Outrage and allegations of a judge fixing the results eventually led to both teams being awarded gold medals and the implementation of the ISU Judging System.

Lipinski told Carp the story is an important part of figure skating’s history, adding thatMeddlingoffers perspectives from the people who were a part of the scandal more than two decades ago.

“It is really interesting as someone who feels like I know so much about figure skating to learn so much along the way,” she said of the production process. Lipinksi added, “You start to realize there were so many different players. Different countries, different federations, you even had a Russian mobster who was part of this scandal.”

Lipinski, who won the womens' singles figure skating gold medal in 1998, also highlighted the “good” that came out of the scandal during herReality Checkappearance: the newly-adopted judging system. The ISU Judging System replaced the former 6.0 system, which many felt led to judging discrepancies.

“The good thing that happened was the change in the system and now we have a much more fair and just judging system,” she explained.

In response to a question about why figure skating can be so competitive, Lipinski told Carp, “You have to remember that this is an Olympic sport. The people involved are giving up their entire lives. They are sacrificing everything for these six minutes of glory and six minutes can change someone’s life.”

She noted that it always surprises her when she looks back at the 2002 incident and the1991 Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan scandalduring the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

“It always surprises me when I look back on a scandal like this or what happened with the Nancy and Tonya scandal that those things happened in my sport, so it is not all of skating. You know hopefully it is just those two events that are now behind us,” said Lipinski.

Meddlingis streaming now on Peacock.

source: people.com