Whipped Cream Difficulties

…and the International Olympic Committee:

Vivian and Ronald Joseph finished in fourth place in the pairs skating competition at the 1964 Winter Olympics.

However, after the Olympics, it came out that the second place West German team of Marika Kilius and Hans-Jürgen Bäumler had signed a contract with Holiday on Ice before the Olympics. This violated IOC rules, and, in 1966, the West Germans gave their medals back. The Canadian team of Debbi Wilkes and Guy Revell were moved up to second, and the Josephs were moved up to third. There was even a small subdued ceremony in Chicago for the Josephs, and the Wilkes/Revall team were awarded their medals at the 1967 national championships in Canada.

Prodded by two German members, the I.O.C. quietly re-awarded the West Germans their silver medals in 1987, 23 years after the Innsbruck Games, at an executive board meeting in Istanbul. The couple was deemed “rehabilitated.”

But the IOC never asked the Josephs or the Wilkes/Revell team for their medals back. (Guy Revell died in 1981 and was buried with his medal, so that might have been interesting.) Nor did the IOC tell anyone in the Canadian or US figure skating associations.

Confusing matters further, various skating record books reported different information. Skate Canada’s media guide lists the Canadians as silver medalists with no mention of sharing. The U.S. Figure Skating media guide lists the original finishing order but with an asterisk explaining the disqualification and reversal. But editions before 2002-3 did not mention the reversal.

As of now, 26 years later, the IOC is officially stating that the Wilkes/Revell Canadian team shares the silver medal with the West Germans, and the Josephs are the bronze medal winners. “Despite the information on its website over the years, the I.O.C. said in an email that since 1987 this was always intended to be the official result.”

Uh-huh. Pull the other one, guys; it has silver bells on it, just in time for the Christmas season.

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