Are Tennis Players Mobbed Up Too? More fallout yesterday concerning the bribery scandal now engulfing international figure skating. Now, it looks as if the reach of the Russian Mob affects the highest levels of international tennis as well:
Russian tennis star Yevgeny Kafelnikov insists the reputed mobster charged with trying to fix Olympic skating results has been mistakenly accused.
"He's a good friend of mine, but I'd rather talk about tennis right now," Kafelnikov said Thursday after losing at the Tennis Masters Canada.
Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov was arrested Wednesday in Italy on U.S. charges he set up a vote-swapping scheme at the Salt Lake City Olympics.
"Whatever happened there, I'm sure it's some kind of mistake," said Kafelnikov, winner of two Grand Slam singles titles.
Italian police say an investigation into the Russian mafia uncovered the alleged ice-skating fix, as well as Tokhtakhounov's ties to other sports figures, including Ukrainian tennis player Andrei Medvedev.
Medvedev's Web site featured a 1999 picture of him with Tokhtakhounov, along with Kafelnikov and fellow Russian tennis star Marat Safin, the 2000 U.S. Open champion. That photo and two others with Tokhtakhounov were removed from the site Thursday.
No kidding they were removed. In fact, the entire set of photos of Medvedev's exploits off the court in 1999 have been removed from the Web site. However, the Google cache of the page listing all the pics is still intact, though the actual photos can't be found.
Here's hoping this investigation doesn't end with figure skating. Over in the NHL, reports of Russian Mob influence began surfacing in the late 90s, with PBS' Frontline doing the most comprehensive work detailing the extent of their reach. Most often, players would be targetted for extortion, with family and friends back in Russia being threatened.
In many other cases, it's believed that the Russian players either caved in, or simply hired bigger and badder mobsters to keep their families safe. For a rundown on the NHL players Frontline profiled, click here.
For my money, this is a story that the NHL, professional tennis, and international figure skating doesn't want told. Once someone does get to the bottom of it, we may be surprised what we find.
POSTSCRIPT: One of the main sources for information on the activities of the Russian Mob in the U.S. came from convicted felon Michael Franzese -- a former member of the Colombo crime family. And where have we heard that name before?
