Is Olympic Figure Skating fixed?

[manifold]

My wife insists that it is, and I defer to her expertise on this one.

First, she says that Plushenko got SCREWED in the men's singles. He's getting lambasted as a sore loser but she says he has every right to be pissed. He landed a quad, which nobody else in the field even tries, and he skated the rest of his program flawlessly. Again, according to my wife, historically if you do something nobody else can do and you skate your program flawlessly, you win Gold. Period.

And now she say the American Ice Dancing team got robbed because the judges went with the home cook'n and handed the Gold to the Canadian team. Again, I'm no expert, but she insists that the Americans were better.

I just think it's funny that she cares.

 

[Oddball]

No "sport" that relies upon subjective "style points" will ever rid itself of politics or outright cheating.

Much as people like to talk smack about games like bowling, golf or curling not being "sports", at least we all know who won at the end.

 

[Valerie]

I agree with Dude.


Mani, I didn't even watch for that very reason, so I bet your wife is right.

I tried to watch a bit at the beginning and it was too frustrating and then I remembered that feeling of the fix being in from the last Olympics, so I turned on some Curling and felt much better about watching.

 

[manifold]

No "sport" that relies upon subjective "style points" will ever rid itself of politics or outright cheating.

Much as people like to talk smack about games like bowling, golf or curling not being "sports", at least we all know who won at the end.

Tell that to all the Raider fans still whining about the tuck rule.

 

[del]

i didn't even know it was broken.

 

[Valerie]

That's when I thought to myself... They should make an American Idol type event for figure skaters and America would absolutely LOVE it.

 

[Valerie]

i didn't even know it was broken.

I think it's a women thing...Most of us love to watch the figure skating!

 

[FireGod]

It always has been and always will be a sport that is not totally about skill ;(

 

[xotoxi]

First, she says that Plushenko got SCREWED in the men's singles.

I think she just likes men with mullets who do not use deodorant.

 

[Toro]

Sounds like someone is upset the American's didn't win the pairs last night!

Figure skating did have a competition fixing scandal about a decade ago but is now considered to be above board.

 

[mudwhistle]

I think they score points off of the originality of their costumes.

 

[random3434]

Ha, I was just watching on ESPN 2 (the show with the blonde chick and the nerdy looking guy) where they were talking about the paired skating, and how 4 pairs are brother and sister, and how GROSS it was with all the erotic sub-text in the skating....and then they would show the gal's legs all up in her brother's face, and another wrapped around her brother like a twig,,,,too funny.

 

[Foxfyre]

I don't know if Pleshanko got robbed. Yes, he landed a quad but the rest of his program was not flawless. I watched it again, once in actual time and once in slow mo. He was nowhere near as smooth, his positions not as finished as Lysacek, nor was his footwork as difficult as Lysacek's. Skating simply has to have a degree of subjectivity just as snow board aerials and ski jumping has a degree of subjectivity. Sometimes style simply counts in some events.

Ice skating will lose all its charm if it comes down to who can do one big jump and then not fall for the rest of the program any more than American Idol is judged by who can sing one sustained loud note. The whole 4.5 minutes has to be judged, and based on that, I believe Lysacek won fair and square.

And if I am fair, the Canadian couple was amazing--every move finished, exquisitely choreographed, and superbly skated. Beautiful to watch. I was so enthralled by the program that I wasn't watching for style points (which I did do in the men's single competition) but I didn't have any problem with them getting the win. I did not think the Russian team deserved a medal, but I have to figure maybe a tinge of prejudice could be affecting my opinion there.

 

[Article 15]

I vaguely recall some controversy over the French figure skating judges a couple of Olympics ago.

 

[namvet]

Date: Sun, 21 Feb 2010 05:38:31 -0800

USA'a Lindsey Vonn stripped of her gold medal

USA skier Lindsey Vonn was stripped of her gold medal by the Olympic Committee today.


The Olympic Committee has announced that it has taken the gold medal from Lindsay Vonn and given it to Barack Obama.

Apparently he is going downhill much faster.
​

 

[FireGod]

Ha, I was just watching on ESPN 2 (the show with the blonde chick and the nerdy looking guy) where they were talking about the paired skating, and how 4 pairs are brother and sister, and how GROSS it was with all the erotic sub-text in the skating....and then they would show the gal's legs all up in her brother's face, and another wrapped around her brother like a twig,,,,too funny.

Incest is best kept in the family

 

[random3434]

Ha, I was just watching on ESPN 2 (the show with the blonde chick and the nerdy looking guy) where they were talking about the paired skating, and how 4 pairs are brother and sister, and how GROSS it was with all the erotic sub-text in the skating....and then they would show the gal's legs all up in her brother's face, and another wrapped around her brother like a twig,,,,too funny.

Incest is best kept in the family

And it's encouraged in Kentucky.


























And figure skating apparently.

 

[Darkwind]

Date: Sun, 21 Feb 2010 05:38:31 -0800

USA'a Lindsey Vonn stripped of her gold medal

USA skier Lindsey Vonn was stripped of her gold medal by the Olympic Committee today.


The Olympic Committee has announced that it has taken the gold medal from Lindsay Vonn and given it to Barack Obama.

Apparently he is going downhill much faster.
​

 

[rdean]

Well, I like sports. I watch:

Basketball
Football
Tennis
Gymnastics
Figure Skating
Olympics

Gymnastics and Figure skating both have gone through enormous changes in the scoring process. It used to be easy to tell the winner. If 4 of the 7 judges were from Soviet countries, then a Russian or East German would win.

Sarah Hughes from the US won Gold skating perfect with two double triples, first time any woman ever did that in competition and the Russians went nuts. They felt Irina Slutskaya, who stumbled around and looked less graceful than a dude should have won. That kind of controversy caused the score change.

Now, for both Gymnastics and Ice Skating, every single movement is scored.

For ice skating, some of the rule changes, you are scored on edge entering a jump, edge coming out of the jump, holding the jump, difficulty in entering the jump. If you don't complete the revolutions, you get downgraded. You can't do the same jump twice unless it's in combination. You can't do the same combination twice. On spins, you have to complete a certain number of revolutions, some on the outside edge and some on the inside edge and change positions.
And you get a 10% increase in scoring for every jump landed after the first two minutes because by then, your legs feel like lead.
Even between the jumps, you get scored for skating on an inside edge, outside edge, body positions, rotating in opposing directions plus, your skate has to be evaluated before the competition because the moves are given different levels according to difficulty. From level 1 to Level 4.

Many of these rule changes happened since the Russian retired. Most of his jumps were at the very beginning of his program. He nearly fell a couple of times. He had no connecting foot work. What he did have was the Quad which does indeed receive extra points for "risk", but it's only one jump out of 8 or 9.

The American won because he played the system. Most of his jumps were in the second half of his performance which mean they received the extra 10% bonus. Every jump was smooth going in and solid coming out. He never "stumbled". And he had the crowd on their feet with his artistry.

If the Russian had won, it would have been a travesty.

 

[xsited1]

My wife insists that it is, and I defer to her expertise on this one.

First, she says that Plushenko got SCREWED in the men's singles. He's getting lambasted as a sore loser but she says he has every right to be pissed. He landed a quad, which nobody else in the field even tries, and he skated the rest of his program flawlessly. Again, according to my wife, historically if you do something nobody else can do and you skate your program flawlessly, you win Gold. Period.

And now she say the American Ice Dancing team got robbed because the judges went with the home cook'n and handed the Gold to the Canadian team. Again, I'm no expert, but she insists that the Americans were better.

I just think it's funny that she cares.

I'm just shocked that a woman actually married Mani.