The Canadian kids looked more exhausted than elated this morning when their weeklong ordeal finally ended with a golden sunrise. The two had been in the Olympic Village when their agent, Craig Fenech, called and told them to get over to his hotel quickly. There were rumors that a belated victory was coming. But Pelletier said he wasn’t counting on anything. He recalled the synchronized swimming mess back in 1992 when a judge’s inadvertent scoring mistake screwed up the order of finish. That controversy, he said, “should have taken five minutes to settle, but it took a year.” When the news proved good, Pelletier said they were stunned, but very happy. He added, however, “We feel … a little sad that other athletes around the world aren’t getting the attention for their accomplishments.”

L’affaire Sale and Pelletier may be over for the time being, thanks to a brilliant debut by the new IOC president Jacque Rogge whose strong-armed intervention clearly made the difference. (The haughty ISU, which had earlier taken pains to point out that it was, in fact, two years older than the IOC, got steamrolled and at least had the sense to get up smiling.) But the ISU is hardly off the hook. Suspending one French judge for vague “misconduct” will hardly satisfy the figure skating world or its fans, who now suspect that some of what they’ve celebrated in the past has been fraudulent.

The Canadians, empowered by their stunning TKO of a century’s worth of entrenched bureaucracies, made it clear that their priority remains that “the truth comes out.” Fenech said that the ISU investigation could not be allowed to stop with one “scapegoat.” “They [Sale and Pelletier] want this to be the catalyst to make changes in their sport so this cannot happen to anyone ever again.” Pelletier echoed that notion, but took pains to be as gracious in victory as the couple has been all week in defeat. “This was nothing against them [Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze],” he said. “This was against the system.”

Sale and Pelletier, who have been a couple for about half of the almost four years they have been a pair, have been trying to have some semblance of a normal Olympic experience since the skating controversy erupted. But everywhere they went, people were telling them, “You were robbed” when what they really wanted to hear was, “You were great.” Still, Pelletier demonstrated that he hadn’t lost his sense of humor. When asked if he thought they would get to keep the silver medal, “We hope to get the bronze, too, so we can get the entire collection.”

Pelletier is hardly the only one who saw humor in this fiasco. The late-night comedians have found it fertile fodder for their crack writers. Jay Leno said, “I’m glad Tonya Harding got out of skating before it got ugly.” The Canadians saw the humor, expressed their gratitude and are clearly smart enough to realize that this means a windfall for them that never would have resulted from simply winning an Olympic pairs gold.

But it comes at a cost. While they will get their medals on the ice next Thursday, before a sellout crowd at the ladies’ freeskate, and presumably get to hear their anthem, too, there is a certain sorrow that can’t fully be erased. Sale had dreamed of her Olympic sojourn since she was 8 years old. In the past year, she says, since she and David became world champions, the pressure had steadily mounted “to bring home the gold.” Sale had visualized the entire experience-the great skate, the thrill of victory, the top of the podium and the anthem.

It will happen, but not in the spontaneous way she had envisioned. The thrill of victory has been tempered by the ordeal she and David endured. “You bet we were cheated out of that big time,” Sale said. In truth, the whole world has been cheated out of something. The outrageous result from figure skating is an Olympic perennial-in dance in Nagano, in ladies and pairs in Lillehammer. This is just the first time everyone has been aware of it. And unless there is not just reform, but revolution in international skating, you can go to the bank on it happening again in Turin, Italy, four years hence. If it doesn’t, then Jamie and David will have won their greatest victory.