Props to Jame sale and David Pelletier

[1837]

I hate to say this but one more time last night, i had been convinced that figure skating is fixed... Anyone who saw last night event clearly know what i'm talking about.... The canadians had a perfect program while the russian duo made technical mistakes and who finished first ? You got it, the russians... Even the crowd in Salt Lake booed the results. I'm feed up of these partial judges I though the Olympics were an event where athletes performs, not a place to make politics... Very sad...

 

[Ike Bomb]

Yeah, sorta like how the U.S. swept the half-pipe event. Who else saw that coming?

This will always be a problem when the scoring is subjective, and I don't know what can be done about it.

:thefinger (some of) the olympic judges.

 

[Patternseeker]

that was a joke

that was a joke

1837,

i couldn't believe my eyes. that left a bad taste in my mouth for the games; they were clearly the gold medalists.

congrats to them.

 

[Blitz]

That's why I have a problem with any "SO CALLED" sport that you have to wait for "judges" to tell you who won! Give me a sport with a score you can see or a time you can see otherwise their is too much room for playing with numbers..... "Fuzzy Math".

 

[Eddie Haskell]

This is why I have trouble viewing figure skating as a sport. Too subjective and subject to possible political influence. It's more of an athletic artform. If it can't be measured as fastest, furthest, highest, longest, actual scoring ie. basketball, football, baseball, etc. it will always be subject to such outside influences.

I know boxing, diving, etc. It just seems different to me. Hell, put the puck in the net more times than your opponent or cross the finish line in front of other speed skaters. Then you really know the winner of that event. Just have a lot of trouble with these subjective judgments.

Eddie

 

[Felonious Monk]

Here is why there was so much bitching about the results. I missed it, because I was watching the French fags get beat by Belarus 3-1 in hockey and the basketball game.

Berezhnaya and Sikharulidzes program, to Meditation, was strong but hardly perfect. Sikharulidze stepped out of a double axel, and they couldnt match the Canadians emotion.
Yet they still collected seven 5.9s for artistry, with the Chinese and Polish judges favoring the Russians and making the difference, ensuring a Russian or Soviet pair has won every gold medal since 1964.
The Canadians got only four 5.9s for artistry.
Judges from Russia, China, France, Poland and Ukraine placed the Russian pair first.
Pelletier claimed: We have lost because of the French judge.
The U.S., Canadian, German and Japanese judges awarded their top marks to the Canadians.
But Sikharulidze refused to apologize for the shiny golden disc hanging around his neck. He and Berezhnaya were silver medalists four years ago, and its been anything but a smooth transition from second to first.
They withdrew from the 2000 world championships after Berezhnaya failed a drug test, which she said was caused by over-the-counter cold medicine. They were then suspended for three months by the International Skating Union and stripped of their European crown.
Yeah, sure, because I have a gold medal, Sikharulidze shot back when someone asked if he and Berezhnaya had skated a winning program. All competitions are decided by fate.

BTW, Jamie Sale is pretty hot. Here are some pics:

 

[KINGPIN]

can you imagine you work all that time and know you won everyone else knows you won but the judges who cheated like mad to keep a rusian dynasty going. i think every minute of every game the refs in hockey should hand out penaltys to russia just to let them see how it feels to take it up the ass like that .of course then we would be just like them CHEATERS. it must have taken everything they had last night to not blow up and say what they wanted to you gotta love the composure they showed GO CANADA GO

 

[wigs]

like that 3rd pic Monk, a little upside-down entry, oh yeah(on the chick of course)....

 

[bigbagrat]

HEY, CHILL DUDES!!! Did you think for ONE MINUTE that the judges were going to actually score that or any event honestly?? This is not a new problem...............

.................just ask Roy Jones about Olympic scoring (but you might want to duck).

Why do you guys watch this when you know someone is going to get screwed?

 

[Juice]

I agree with you 1837, but I think we Canadians should get over it already. That's all I'm seeing on all the sports channels and CBC. What's done is done, let's move on.

Imagine this happened in a real sport, we'd never hear the end of it.

 

[1837]

Agree Juice but it is hard to get over it.... What i like is that the last poll from the offical website of Salt Lake city 2002 show 95% of the people who believe canadians should have won the gold medal. It seems we're not the only one who think we have been f....k!!! As someone brought, it's better to watch sports where there are times and scores instead of judges feelings...

 

[HONUS]

It was an incredible performance. I don't know a hill of beans about figure skating, but I do know that what I saw last night was something very special. It was great entertainment and something to behold.

Folks, if you can end it right there, you'll be very satisfied. Once you start thinking about the judging, you'll end up in the loony bin. So do yourselves a favor, don't.

Enjoy it for what it was.

A few years back, there was a French pair of skaters (can't remember their names; but I thought she was gorgeous), who were very innovative, which of course the judges hated. They knew going in that they had no chance to medal. Didn't matter; they never changed their distinct style.

Eventhough I knew they couldn't win, I always watched their performances.

Screw the judges!

 

[Juice]

No question they were robbed and everyone knows it, and that may be some sort of consolation for them.

The person I really feel bad for is Wotherspoon (500M speed skater). The guy is a gold medal favourite and sees 4 years of dedication get wasted on an unlucky fall.
That's must be terribly hard to deal with.

 

[bigbagrat]

For what it's worth, CNN.com is reporting there will be an inquiry:

Skating federation to investigate judging

Posted: Tuesday February 12, 2002 6:04 PM
Updated: Tuesday February 12, 2002 7:49 PM

David Pelletier and Jamie Sale of Canada finished second in the pairs figure skating competition. AP

SALT LAKE CITY (CNN) -- The International Skating Union announced Tuesday that it will conduct an "internal assessment" into a controversial judging decision at the finals of the Olympic pairs figure skating competition Monday night, where the coveted gold medal went to a Russian pair who stumbled, rather than to a Canadian couple who didn't.

In a statement issued after a routine review of Monday's judging, the ISU, the sports federation governing figure skating, said it will try to determine whether "the ISU rules and procedures have been respected."

 

[1837]

We will finally see the end of that story! Sale and Pelletier will get their gold medal!

 

[Juice]

I agree that they were robbed, but I disagree with the decision to give them a gold. This sets a dangerous precedent.

Now everyone who feels that they should have won will whine and cry about the great "injustice" and will demand a gold (or silver, or bronze) medal.

I am embarassed for the Canadian Olympic Cometee for going this far. Medals should be won on the playing field, not in the court room. Athletes get screwed out of medals in every sport...all the time. Deal with it and move on.

There is a simple solution to all this. Get rid of all these judged "sports". People may enjoy watching figure skating, but its not a sport, its a show.

 

[1837]

Juice,
this is NOT a precedent! In 1993, another gold medal has been awarded in synchronized swimming to canadian Sylvie Frechette after the brazilian judge mistyped the score in her computer. I remember clearly that one, i was watching it!

 

[Juice]

I stand corrected.

But there is a difference between reversing a score because of a typo and because you don't agree with the judges.

BTW, what happens to the silver medals?

 

[bigbagrat]

Juice, hold on.....

Juice, hold on.....

The dangerous precedent that was about to be set was fixing the vote. I'm sure this happens some times (I''d like to say all the time, but) this French judge got caught, apparently red-handed, agreeing to fix this event in return for another fix in another event.

I agree, after the fact the Russians should not be penalized, but the Canadians deserve to be skating on "level ice."

And I agree with you even more--- get rid of judged events!

 

[Juice]

I think you should penalize the judge but you shouldn't change the results.

You say the Russians should not be penalized. Why? The whole argument here is that the Canadians deserve the gold (not the Russians) because they skated better. And if the French judge was not on the take, than origionally the Canadians would have gotten the gold and Russians the silver.

I think if you give the Canadians the gold because they were better, than you have to give the Russians the silver because they were worse. You can't have your cake and eat it, but that's exactly what the IOC is trying to do.