Canada declares war on Switzerland

[MRT144]

We enjoy taking your talented individuals who realize life in the US is a better choice, especially for their children

Asher is one of those children. It's delicious.

[MRT144]

Also, biathalon is amazingly cool and ridiculous. Skiing, shooting, penalty laps...it's awesome.

[Serb]

So the best you can do is try to discredit me

During my nearly ten years of practice in flame wars here on Poly this trick proved its efficiency.

based on an honest mistake (Swiss vs. French)?

And you call that a honest mistake?
Lambiel is an icon of modern figure skating. He belongs to top elite skaters for years (Silver Olympic medal in 2006). And you don't even heard of him.
Then again who said this?

In fact, Elvis never won a World or Olympic title in his career

And that was AFTER I have already told you he won three World Championships.

Tell me again about your qualifications, Serb.

I'm smart enough to...

You offer no original thoughts, just blind outrage.

... to back-up my rightful outrage with opinion of the REAL (3 WC, 2 Olympic silvers, 7 times national champion) and neutral (Canadian) EXPERT.
You can hardly call that approach a "blind outrage".

You hang your entire argument on the opinion of one man (Stojko),

Because
a) he is an expert
b) he is Canadian, so you can hardly call him biased towards Russia
c) he speaks the truth.

ignoring the fact that many others, equally or more qualified, disagree.

Who are these "others"? You and Ming?
You and Ming are three times World Champions?
You are the only only ones who are argueing with Stojko in this thread so far. And both of you are nowhere near equally or more qualified than him.

And do you really believe that victories from years ago should determine scores of the Olympics? Why bother with the actual skating?

I gave you this short lecture about past Plushenko victories and records to show you that your claim that the guy is not familiar with the "new system" and his program wasn't designed to get more points than competitors, that this claim is just purified bullsh!t.
The last world record for the short program Plushenko set less than a MONTH ago at January 20 in Tallin at 2010 European Figure Skating Championships.
Guess who was the author of the previous record?
Eugeny Plushenko (set in 2006 in Tourino). For four years this record remained unbeaten to be beaten in 2010 by Plushenko himself.

Talk about laughable...

Right, laughable. New system has been introduced two years before Plushenko won his gold at Tourino. He set two world records in 2006 and retired for three years to come back and break his own record in 2010. And then comes Jrabbit who says: "the guy just don't know a sh!t about this new scoring system".
That's indeed laughtable.

I know I'm not going to change your mind, but your entire argument still rests on "one quad beats no quads." Which is simply not how the sport works.

This is exactly how a real sport works - you take the risks, you do the hardest stuff nobody else can do - you win.
The Olympic sport is about doing faster, higher and stronger, not about dancing on ice and smiling to judges.
You want some artistic presentation - you go to ballet or opera. You want some real Olympic sport - you do the jumps (as the most difficult technical element of figure skating).
Simple as that.

In fact, in both the 2009 and 2008 men's world championships, the winner did not execute a quad.

And this is exactly what I was saying to you all these posts.
Only few people can do them. A quad is the pick of the technical exelence in figure skating (well, almost the pick, Plushenko can jump 4+3+3 combination nobody else can). And the fact that when Plushenko haven't compete people start to win WC without doing a quads proves that figure skating degrades as sport under this new scoring system. And that makes Stojko sick:

"But the judges’ scoring was ridiculous.

Because of it, the sport took a step backward. Brian Boitano did the same thing, technically, in 1988. There are junior skaters who can skate that same program.

And the judges’ scoring probably killed figure skating because kids now are going to see this and say, “Oh, I don’t need a quad. I can just do great footwork for presentation marks and do a couple of nice spins and make it to Olympic champion.” With that type of scoring, you don’t have to risk it. You can play it safe and win gold.

In what other sports do you have to hold back in order to win?

The International Skating Union has taken the risk out of figure skating and it makes me sick".

Get over it.

Right. And let figure skating to slowly die as sport and turn it into ballet on ice.
You know what pisses me of the most?
When Russian coaches will finally teach your dumb western skaters to jump quads or even 4+3+2, the ISU come-up with the new set of rules and start telling everyone how figure skating is all about doing the hardest technical stuff (jumps), not about artistic presentation of your ass to the judges or waving your hands in transitions. I am ABSOLUTELY sure about that.

[Serb]

Also, biathalon is amazingly cool and ridiculous. Skiing, shooting, penalty laps...it's awesome.

Welcome to the real world.

[Serb]

Oh, and US
Miller was awesome.

Damn Canucks, it's 1/4 again. Not even semis.
If you will beat the Germans first of course.
So, go Germany, go

[Guynemer]

Also, biathalon is amazingly cool and ridiculous. Skiing, shooting, penalty laps...it's awesome.

QFMFT

[-Jrabbit]

Serb, Plushenko was his own worst enemy. After the European championships, he was widely quoted as saying that he "paid no attention to transitions" and what happens? The judges listen, and give him scores more in line with his actual level of performance (and not his reputation). This was not an American plot; it was caused by his own acknowledgement that he puts all his effort into the jumps, at the expense of other elements.

So Plushenko knew the rules. Of course he did. But he did not back-load his program, and did not perform all the elements planned. And your inane comment about "smiling to the judges" is especially disingenuous, considering that it was Plushenko who was blowing kisses.

From Reuters:

The 27-year-old showman, sporting a sequined bodysuit with red waistcoat and silver tie pattern, flirted with the camera, winked at the crowd and blew a kiss toward the judges but all that could not hide the faults in his routine.

Plushenko dropped the double loop from his opening quad-triple-double combination and drew gasps as he wobbled out of his triple Axel. He performed 11 jumps, but also had another snatched landing midway through his display.

Those are all deductions, each worth more than 1.31 points. That's what cost him the gold.

You've now admitted that your problem is with the rules. As I've stated previously, that's a different discussion.

[pchang]

I'm rooting for Canada

against Germany just to see the all out flame war between Asher and Serb for Canada vs. Russia.

[Ben Kenobi]

Will be an interesting matchup either way. All the other quarters will be meh, although Slovakia/Finland might be interesting.

[Guynemer]

against Germany just to see the all out flame war between Asher and Serb for Canada vs. Russia.

Win, win, win.

[-Jrabbit]

How about a little love for keeping the figure skating discussion going?

I'm doing it as a community service, so you guys can feel more manly.

[Winston]

Hrmpf. You can't really see their figure with those fluffy skirts they're wearing.

[Asher]

Canada defeats the evil Russians in ice dancing.

[-Jrabbit]

The Russians could not overcome the handicap of their bizarre costumes, which must have been supplied by evil North Americans.

[rah]

I loved the slam by NBC. For every other pair while waiting for their scores posted the score they needed to move into first place. For the Russians they posted what they needed to win the bronze. Oh how they mighty have fallen.