TORINO: Alpine: Dalcin fined 5,000 Swiss francs for middle-finger gesture

TORINO: Alpine: Dalcin fined 5,000 Swiss francs for middle-finger gesture{mosimage}SESTRIERE, Italy – Pierre-Emmanuel Dalcin of France was fined 5,000 Swiss francs (U.S. $3,800) for making an obscene gesture in Saturday’s Olympic men’s super G. The sanction represents the maximum penalty the jury can place on site of the competition venue.

‘He showed his middle finger to the public, into the cameras and maybe to the jury’ said race referee Guenter Hujara. ‘We understand the emotion … but there is no excuse in something like that.’

Hujara said the sanction was decided unanimously and that it should serve as a warning to other racers. Hujara also stressed that he had no problem with the French team.

Dalcin was angry over the cruel hand he was dealt in Saturday’s wacky super G, which was called off after 17 racers and restarted in the afternoon in better weather. Dalcin was the fastest racer in that first run, but failed to finish in the second outing.

‘It’s very fair, but it’s very tough on him because it was the race of his life’ said Jean-Francois Lamour, the French minister of sport.

Lamour pointed out that Dalcin had had a long wait in the start of his second run while course workers cleaned up a mess made by A.J. Bear of Australia. (Click here for insane trampoline footage of Bear.)

As he crashed on Saturday, Bear’s ski sprung into the air and landed in the B-netting, and it took several minutes for course workers to fetch it. Meanwhile, Dalcin was waiting at the top.

‘When he comes down and he’s out of the race, he just cannot stand it anymore, and made a very bad gesture’ said Lamour.

Bode Miller was seen making a similar gesture in photos published by the news agency Reuters. Like Dalcin, Miller failed to finish the super G, but unlike the Frenchman, Miller’s gesture was made far from the competition venue.

Last month, Miller was sanctioned twice in one day, first for continuing a slalom course after straddling a gate and second for skipping a bib draw.