Pure and simple, Sale and Pelletier were robbed.

(Later-in-the-day update: there may be more to the idea that Sale and Pellitier were robbed than just raw emotion. USA Today columnist Christine Brennan has what appears to be a scoop today — the French judge, Marie Reine Le Gougne, appears to have told the ISU that she was forced to vote for the Russians in a vote-swapping deal that would bring the ice dancing gold to the French next week. Brennan also mentions reports of the judge possibly being in a position of wanting to curry favor with the Russian delegation, who would make it possible for her to gain a seat on the ISU technical committee.)

It’ll be interesting to see what the findings of the ISU’s “internal assessment” turn out to be.