[seanyepez]

Sale and Pelletier ran a truly immaculate performance tonight. Ice skating is so political. I feel really bad for Canada.

I don't care what the judges think. The crowd was going wild for Canada's team. Even the cameras on TV didn't focus in on the Russian pair.

I'm not capping on the Russians; they were good, too. However, they were clearly not the best tonight. You can't blame the skaters; blame the judges.

Life is truly unfair. I know the decision's final now, but I think Sale and Pelletier's lives are adversely affected by this development. I wish the Russians' 30-year reign would end.

[CaseCom]

What, you're too good for the Hey Canada! You got screwed! thread?

[seanyepez]

I think that thread is turning into a general "teams who got screwed" thread. It doesn't do justice to the event.

[AKcrab]

Damn "green stars".. Always stealing the spotlight.

I wasn't very thorough in my description of how badly screwed you were. You gave a much more vivid account.

[neill anblome]

Originally posted by seanyepez:
<STRONG>Sale and Pelletier ran a truly immaculate performance tonight. Ice skating is so political. I feel really bad for Canada.

I don't care what the judges think. The crowd was going wild for Canada's team. Even the cameras on TV didn't focus in on the Russian pair.

I'm not capping on the Russians; they were good, too. However, they were clearly not the best tonight. You can't blame the skaters; blame the judges.

Life is truly unfair. I know the decision's final now, but I think Sale and Pelletier's lives are adversely affected by this development. I wish the Russians' 30-year reign would end.</STRONG>

Ahhh, figureskating is for pussies anyway Canada is good @ hockey, they'll have a great turnament! Of course, should they play each other, the US is going to kick their a** all over the place ...let the flame war begin!

[seanyepez]

In all seriousness, you have to consider the hopes and dreams of the dedicated figureskaters whose dream was stolen by biases of judges who have voted Russia for the past thirty years. The routine was perfect; none of the figure skating pairs from Russia did anything out of the ordinary in their routines, and the pair who won missed a jump.

[seanyepez]

Did anyone else notice how the crowd wasn't very emotional for Russia? Cameras tended to stay on the Canadian crew more often, too.

[shmerek]

I am no figure skating fan but it was a total bullshit call. I saw both routines and the canadians were clearly better. This is why I hate sports that have judges that decide the final outcome political bullshit gets in the way of a fair judgement. The theory here in canada is that the french judge was doing favours for the russians so the russians will be more forgiving of the french ice dance pair. And did anyone notice how long it took for the marks to come up for the canadians? ****ing judges! Everyone knows who won even the russian pair. I think the judges should have to justify their marks for this one.

[jcarr]

Yet another reason I dislike the subjective sports.

I just heard about this incident this morning on the radio as i was watching hockey and curling on CNBC & MSNBC.

Agreed you can and do see bad calls in these sports as well (a highstick major last night was called a double minor by the ref), but they are frewer and far between.

Wasn't there a similar incident years ago where Oksana Baiul was awarded the gold when she was tied on points with Nancy Kerrigan?

[[email protected]]

Originally posted by seanyepez:
<STRONG>Cameras tended to stay on the Canadian crew more often, too. </STRONG>

I would have too, that girl was rather hot.

[Bockie]

Originally posted by seanyepez:
<STRONG>In all seriousness, you have to consider the hopes and dreams of the dedicated figureskaters whose dream was stolen by biases of judges who have voted Russia for the past thirty years. The routine was perfect; none of the figure skating pairs from Russia did anything out of the ordinary in their routines, and the pair who won missed a jump.</STRONG>

Actually this makes 44 years of dominance.

Yes, if you miss a jump and scramble to keep from falling on your ass, then you DO NOT DESERVE a first place finish. Especially if your competitors (and World Champions!) skate a flawless program. Especially, especially, if the competition is for the gold medal in the Olympic Games.

I'm no Olympic judge but I know there are three main parts of pairs skating: spins, jumps, throws. Hmmm...Let's do a very rudimentary side-by-side comparison:

----------------Russians-----------Canadians
-----Spins---------Yes----------------Yes
-----Throws-------Yes----------------Yes
-----Jumps--------NO----------------YES

I give no credence to the argument that the Russians skated a more technical program with their interwoven spins.

&lt;kinda-OT&gt;
I think the last USA team to skate should have gotten the bronze medal. Just my two cents.
&lt;/kinda-OT&gt;

[edit: aww, screw it...Stupid Formatting]

[ 02-12-2002: Message edited by: Bockie ]

[The Ginger Rat]

Originally posted by shmerek:
<STRONG>The theory here in canada is that the french judge was doing favours for the russians so the russians will be more forgiving of the french ice dance pair. And did anyone notice how long it took for the marks to come up for the canadians? ****ing judges! Everyone knows who won even the russian pair. I think the judges should have to justify their marks for this one. </STRONG>

I hope Bourne and Kratz (our ice dancers) don't let this get them too down, although I do think they are going to get screwed big time.

Supposedly all 9 judges have to justify their decisions before an ISU inquiry, but that is just window dressing; they are waiting for the furore to die down before business as usual. Figure skating judging is so unbelievably corrupt, but because it is so popular and lucrative it won't be banned from the Olympics. Very frustrating.

[3gg3]

I was listening to a SportsTalk show from Vancouver late last night, and of the 30 or so calls, 29 of them were in the same vein as most of the above posts (ditto the dozen or so e-mails the host read out). But towards the end, there was a call from an older woman with a very thick Middle European(?) accent, claiming to have some serious credentials in judging of figure skating. The best I could gather thru the accent was two points she was making:
a) Soviet skaters have dominated because they scrupulously passed on to each upcoming pairs that the secret of winning points is in HEIGHT of jumps.
b) S&P skated a very "horizontal" program, with jumps not being high enough.

So I guess it's better to get the height and fluff the landings than to perform immaculate "low" jumps. Unfortunately, I was not able to see either routine.

[DBursey]

From the Globe and Mail:

The International Skating Union (ISU) announced on Tuesday an inquiry would be launched into Monday's controversial judging of the Olympic figure skating pairs event.

Canadian duo Jamie Sale and David Pelletier were edged out of the gold medal position by Russians Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze to loud boos from the crowd in what many neutral observers saw as a judging scandal.

The ISU made a statement which read: Following the reaction of the public and the media to the results of the pairs event at the Salt Lake Ice Center last night, and to respect public opinion, the ISU is doing an internal assessment to monitor if the ISU rules and procedures have been respected.

Any further comment will be given when appropriate.

The ISU made its statement after a routine judges' meeting to look back at Monday's voting.

Notice they say 'when' appropriate. I can't wait to hear their explanation for this one.

[seanyepez]

Originally posted by [email protected]:
<STRONG>

I would have too, that girl was rather hot.</STRONG>

I wasn't referring to her looks, but I suppose I came to the same conclusion. I couldn't tell, actually; I was watching it on a stretched, 16:9 television. Everyone looked obese.

See, I'm saying the TV crews thought the same thing; Sale and Pelletier were the true winners.

I think it's amazing that they put on an immaculate performance despite the warm-up accident.

[The Dude]

Originally posted by seanyepez:
<STRONG>Life is truly unfair.</STRONG>

::jaw drops::

I...wha...huh...you...but...impossible...

&lt;-- speechless

[Agasthya]

I wish I was in Canada so I could get the rest of this story from TSN but we're stuck with ESPN and NBC's lackluster coverage and only everything Amercian matters...oh well...
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/winter...ory?id=1330977

ESPN has published the report that some of you have been talking about (French judge in collaboration with the Russian). Should be VERY interesting to see how all of this plays out. If they find this to be true, will they strip the gold medal away from the Russians and give it to the Canadians?

[G Barnett]

Frankly, if the investigation bears out the speculation and allegations, I wouldn't be at all suprised if they strip the gold from the Russians and award them the silver instead. In all honesty, from the expressions on the Russian pair's faces during the award ceremony, I actually think they'd be somewhat relieved.

When watching the ceremony, I half-expected the Russians to hand the Canadians the gold medals right there on the podium. It would have been a wonderful way to rub the judges' noses in their dirty deed. Still, one can't blame them for not doing so -- they'd have been reviled in their home country.


G Barnett

[funkboy]

Problem solved: Let me judge.

Lady with the most revealing outfit wins...

[Bockie]

Originally posted by [email protected]:
<STRONG>

I would have too, that girl was rather hot.</STRONG>

Actually, she looked a little cold. I mean, she was out on the ice for almost four minutes.

[shmerek]

Originally posted by Bockie:
<STRONG>

Actually, she looked a little cold. I mean, she was out on the ice for almost four minutes.</STRONG>

&lt;drum roll followed by a cymbal crash&gt;

Hey is this mic on?!?

[Agasthya]

Originally posted by Bockie:
<STRONG>

Actually, she looked a little cold. I mean, she was out on the ice for almost four minutes.</STRONG>

booooo boooooooooo!!!

[Bockie]

Originally posted by agasthya:
<STRONG>

booooo boooooooooo!!! </STRONG>

Heya! Heya! Thank you! I'll be here all week. And for my next act...