Gymnastics judge banned for manipulating scores at Paris Olympics qualifying event

GENEVA (AP) - A senior judge in gymnastics was banned for four years on Thursday for manipulating scores to help an athlete from her own country Cyprus qualify for the Paris Olympics.

Evangelia Trikomiti "unduly interfered with the judges' work" last May at the European Championships in rhythmic gymnastics that sent Vera Tugolukova to Paris, said the Gymnastics Ethics Foundation which investigated the case.

Tugolukova, who switched national eligibility from Russia in 2022, placed 16th in the Olympic individual all-around event. She carried the Cyprus flag at the Paris Games closing ceremony at Stade de France.

Trikomiti's intervention in scoring at the European qualifier held in Budapest in May denied an Olympic place to 15-year-old Liliana Lewińska of Poland.

The Polish gymnastics federation filed allegations against Trikomiti, who was charged by the GEF in July three days before the Olympics opening ceremony. She was provisionally suspended and removed from Olympic duty.

The case did not stop the 15-year-old Tugolukova from competing in Paris because investigators could not act against field-of-play decisions taken in May, the GEF said.

Trikomiti faced a disciplinary case for allegedly breaking the International Gymnastics Federation's code of ethics and judges' competition oath. It requires "complete impartiality, respecting and abiding by the rules which govern them, in the true spirit of sportsmanship."

Two judges at the Olympic qualifying event testified against Trikomiti at a hearing held in December before an independent panel of three arbitrators.

Trikomiti's lawyers argued witnesses "had apparent biases and grudges that render their evidence unreliable" and that her "only connection to Ms. Tugolukova was their shared nationality," the published verdict stated.

Trikomiti was banned from judging for four years though not from coaching. European Gymnastics, where Trikomiti is an executive committee member, was ordered to pay 8,000 euros ($8,300) toward the cost of the investigation.

"While competition manipulation should of course never happen, this decision reinforces the Gymnastics Ethics Foundation's commitment to ensuring fair and safe competition through the prosecution of any infringement to the sport's integrity and safety rules," its director Alex McLin said in a statement.

The GEF was created in 2019 and funded by the FIG to better protect athletes after the scandal of sexual abuse by a former United States team doctor.

In a statement Thursday, the foundation based in Lausanne, Switzerland, praised "the crucial role of informants and/or whistleblowers" in its work.