Canadian skaters totally screwed!!!!

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Asher
How could the technical marks be equal when they performed (technically) equal difficulty performances but one did so flawlessly and one had some slipups?

No, speed and angle both come under technical. Both make the routine technically more difficult. If you skate more slowly and standing upright, you will make less mistakes than if you are skating faster and at an angle to the ground. Difficulty is scored in technical.

You may think your team skated all beautiful and stuff, but I was bored by them. I understand the Russian sucked tail pipes fumes, and they scored lower. The Russians were getting all 5.7s and 5.6s while the Canadians got 5.9s and 5.8s. So obviously, something else contributed, which I understand was the short competition. The two are added together, and the sum determines the final score. Apparently the Russians had enough from the previous night to make up for their mistakes.

It looked to me as if the Canadains, seeing the the Russians had blown it, decided to play it safe, and skated very conservatively. They didn't seem like they were trying to win, they seemed like they were trying not to lose. That's just me. I'm not a nationalist or anti-Russian. I didn't see the Russians (I was cooking), I'm not defending them.

[Ming]

Well... many in the skating world must agree that there is a "problem" since they have launched a big investigation because of the results.

It should be interesting

[Asher]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
No, speed and angle both come under technical. Both make the routine technically more difficult. If you skate more slowly and standing upright, you will make less mistakes than if you are skating faster and at an angle to the ground. Difficulty is scored in technical.

You're right, it is.
But the technical base marks were the same between the two, meaning the judges interpreted the difficulty as the same. What then comes into consideration is how well it's executed.

You may think your team skated all beautiful and stuff, but I was bored by them.

That's why I said opinion.
You think your team (the commies, right? ) skated beautifully, and I agree. But I think one team did so without any faults, one had faults, and that's why one placed higher than the other.

I understand the Russian sucked tail pipes fumes, and they scored lower. The Russians were getting all 5.7s and 5.6s while the Canadians got 5.9s and 5.8s. So obviously, something else contributed, which I understand was the short competition. The two are added together, and the sum determines the final score. Apparently the Russians had enough from the previous night to make up for their mistakes.

What are you talking about?
Have you even looked at the score breakdown?

http://www.msnbc.com/news/705183.asp?pne=msn

The lowest the Russians got was 5.7, lowest Canadians got was 5.8.

But what's odd is, say, the French judge for technical: 5.8 for Canada, 5.8 for Russia.
Same deal with Russia and the Ukraine.

[The Vagabond]

Oh please stop this pitiful whining, guys. It's your brains that are screwed by NBC commentators and excessive expectations. Let's analyze the situation in a sober way.

Technical merit. The Russians made some mistakes. The Canadians were better here. But this is correctly reflected in the marks!!!

Presentation. The Canadian program was way too simplistic and straightforward. It did not overwhelm like some gold-medal performances did in the past. The Russians skated in a more artistic and refined manner. They surpassed the Canadians in the depth and overal complexity of the performance. Sure, the Canadians made less mistakes in their simplistic program than the Russians did in their more sophisticated one. But this concerns the technical merit, and this was discussed above. As for the presentation, the Russians did it better and rightfully received better marks.

Pleliminary program. Don't forget that there was the first night of skating where the Russians were 1st. This also counts into the final result.

Overall, it was pretty close to a draw. Neither couple was at the height of the great champions of the past. It was like winning a one-hour race by a margin of one second. But this happens in sports. Now this simply happened to your favorites.

Of course, I feel sorry for the Canadian couple. It's a tragedy to lose by so slim margin. I also feel sorry for the Russian couple: they are now haunted by the most powerful propagandistic machine in the world.

As I read today in a Russian newspaper, perhaps all this crusade in the press is designed to help Michele Kwan over Slutskaya. Now that the referees are intimidated, I hope you understand what they will be inclined to do.

[Ming]

But what about the reported deal between the French and Russian judge. If that is indeed true... which it looks like at this point...

FIX!!!!!!!!!!!

[Asher]

Originally posted by The Vagabond
Technical merit. The Russians made some mistakes. The Canadians were better here. But this is correctly reflected in the marks!!!

Ahem.
If it's correctly reflected in the marks, how come three judges gave the SAME marks to both the Canadians and the Russians in this area, and when one supposedly let the Russians win intentionally?

I'll not argue that the Russians' was more ambitious, but they f*cked up with it in several parts, and that costs you. Sorry.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Ming
But what about the reported deal between the French and Russian judge. If that is indeed true... which it looks like at this point...

FIX!!!!!!!!!!!

Wouldn't be the first time. The Olympics are about politics. I wonder how they'll prove that.

[Dis]

poor canadians

[The Vagabond]

If the French and Russian judges had any private deal, it's sad. But for the time being this is just a speculation. Besides, I don't see how it can be proved in principle, unless the French judge is a covert CIA agent.

Originally posted by Asher

Ahem.
If it's correctly reflected in the marks, how come three judges gave the SAME marks to both the Canadians and the Russians in this area, and when one supposedly let the Russians win intentionally?

Each individual judge is biased by definition. The overall right mark is supposed to be a result of statistical averaging over all the judges involved.

[Guynemer]

Cardinal Rule of Sports: Any competition that involves sequins is definitely NOT a sport.

Artistic merit? Why in the hell is this a criterion in an Olympic event, that is allegedly a sport? If you're judged on artistic merit in this, why not just have a Olympic watercolor competition? One hour to make a pretty picture. Ready... GO!

The only possible good outcome from this would be to banish figure skating from the Olympics. (Along with moguls, halfpipe, freestyle, ski jumping (or just get rid of the "style" scores), gymnastics, diving, synchronized swimming...) Olympic events should be decided by the Olympians, on the field of play; not anonymous judges with various axes to grind, and who answer to essentially no one.

[rah]

Vega, it might be easier than that. Costas implied that the French judge admitted to having a deal with the Russians.
But, we'll still wait for the OFFICIAL investigation

What I found most humorous was the on-line poll.
Who do you think won?

With over 200,000 responses (yes I know that it was an extremely unscientific survey with a very biased universe) The results were

CAN. 96% RUS. 4 %

Quite amazing if you consider that if you posted a poll of what you preferred in your milk.

Chocolate or arsenic?
I'm sure you'd get at least 5% that would pick arsenic.


RAH
I knew it was the French. hahahahhahahah

[Jaguar]

Slutskaya

And someone has to address my point that the canadian girl is hotter than the russian.

[Pekka]

Wow, that canadian chick was hothothot!
She had kind of funny eyes and in a way looked kind of retarded.. i mean special, but i don't know why i think she even hotter that way!

They skated good, but c'mon.. explaining is for gays.

[Ming]

Originally posted by Pekka
They skated good, but c'mon.. explaining is for gays.

Another moronic troll... keep it up and you won't be posting here much longer.

[The Mad Viking]

The joke is it would be very easy to overhaul the system, but why break it when its already FIXED.


I see NO reason why a judge should ever even know who the other judges are, let alone discuss anyone in advance. They should sit in separate isolated booths and be prohibited from communicating with each other. There should be separate judges for every event so there is no potential for trading

And the whole notion of Ordinals- complete BS, set up to fix the result- because they can't do the math fast enough to fix it otherwise.

Hell, even picking judges at random out of the audience would give you a far better result, and lead to more entertaining skating.

But it's not news. It WWF. Harding vs Kerrigan, I want a cage match.

Vagablind- its sad when you can't admit the truth, don't you think?