Yup. Skaters themselves probably had no involvement.
You (usually) can't blame the skaters themselves for getting a (maybe) undeserved award. Although in the depths of the cold war, it is said the KGB and the USSR bureaucracy did its utmost to fix results of various events, from chess to the Olympics.
Where each demon is slain, more hate is raised, yet hate unchecked also multiplies. - L. E. Modesitt, from his Recluse series