Annie and I were watching a little bit of the Olympics tonight. We caught the final bit of the figure-skating duos. It was kind of interesting, as a glimpse into a different world. We listened to the announcers, who appearently have some experience in figure skating, get really rough on the people on the ice. Obviously, they need someone who can spot what’s good and bad about a performance, but it was interesting how the announcers had a constant stream of criticisms, with occaisional compliments. And then it happened. What “it” is, I’m still trying to figure out, but everyone was pretty upset about it. Appearently the Canadians were the obvious winnners, and the judges gave the award to the Russians. Now, the interesting thing about this theoretical scandal is that they never told us what it was about. We were left to gather the clues and piece together what it was they were talking about, because they were all so emotional that they forgot to announce the facts and the neccissary background for those of us who don’t follow figure skating religiously. For instance, there was appearently a collision earlier in the competition that threw off the Candadian’s performance… but a collision with who? Doing what? I don’t know! The announcer kept saying that we shouldn’t blame the Russians, because it’s the judges who made the decision. Is this something that needs to be pointed out? Is there some seamy underbelly to figure skating, where the Russians are usually to blame for bad judgements? I don’t know! And the most baffling thing of all is that the female announcer said at one point, amid attempts to convince me not to blame the Russians, that she was “ashamed for her sport.” I assume her sport is figure skating, but why is she ashamed? She just said the judges were to blame! What did her sport do? Is this really that big a scandal? I don’t know! I don’t even really want to know… I just find it fascinating that there’s this much conflict and drama in figure skating. SCANDAL SCANDAL SCANDAL!!!
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February 12th, 2002 at 1:28 am
The deal was that they have warm ups before each round of two or three skaters. During the last warmup, the russian lead male collided with the canadian female skater, and they hit each other pretty hard. So, this can shake you up when you’re trying to get all zoned and psyched, as with any sport.Then the russians had an okay performance, but the guy doubled a triple spin, and two footed the landing, and they made several other technical mistakes, which in the world of figure skating is a big deal.Then the canadians skated a technically perfect routine, and it was IMO, and the opinion of the announcers and crowd a MUCH better coreographed routine. It was awesome, and they totally deserved to win, especially after doing it so flawlessly.But they lost by one mark in the end (they got near identical scores from the judges, the russians and canadians). The judging lines oddly enough pretty much fell along old east block and west block cold war lines.So that is that, russians win, and that’s cool cuz they’re damn good, but everyone pretty much felt that the canadians were robbed. And the announcers were “ashamed of their sport” because the subjective nature had clearly not rewarded (in the eyes of many) the skaters who had the better performance… which is arguably what the olympics are trying to reward.But hey the judges are what matters in the end. And all ref’s make questionable calls sometimes.Does that clear any of it up? It’s a total drama queen scenario really…–Alex
February 12th, 2002 at 9:56 am
hahah cool… “Figure Skating Politics 101″thanks!
February 12th, 2002 at 11:00 am
Just think “Tonya Harding” and it all makes some bizarre form of sense.
February 14th, 2002 at 10:24 pm