Alright, this is nothing against the American girl who won the snowboarding half-pipe - but if her last run was worth a 47, I am the second coming of Jesus Christ himself. It was a good run, but nowhere NEAR worth that much. If you saw the French girl's first run, it was MUCH, MUCH better than the American's last run, and there's a 5 POINT DIFFERENCE FOR THE AMERICAN?! Total HORSE-SHIT!!!!
Not to mention the 18-year-old Canadian girl who was ROBBED of a bronze medal - all she did was land a trick (a 360 Iron Cross to a Spread Eagle, I believe) that nobody else even THOUGHT of attempting, and had the fastest time by a BIG margin, but lost out on STYLE POINTS?! Even MORE horse-shit! And I'd say the same thing even if she wasn't Canadian.
I'm not blaming the American or any other judge specifically, mind you - I'm blaming ALL judges EVERYWHERE. I HATE them, and judged sports have ABSOLUTELY NO PLACE in Olympic competition whatsoever. The Olympic motto is "Stronger, Higher, Faster", not "It's Athlete X's Home Country/Has Been Around Longer/Team X Gave Me Money/I Was Instructed To/Many Other Stupid Reasons, So Here's a Gold Medal".
The athletes who compete in these sports are world-class athletes, absolutely - I'd never argue that. But until they find a way to eliminate judges, they simply should not be there.
Well said Brew. Judging is totally subjective. While it's great to see awesome runs on those and the men's halfpipe today should be just MINDBLOWING. The one comment that I heard the other day just rubbed me the wrong way. It was about how the first person was favored to reach the podium, but since she was first she probably won't get as high marks since the judges 'want to leave room for other competitors' TOTAL HORSE SHIT!!
Of course there have been many debacles in the past. Sylvie Frichette's (sp?) 'Silver' medal because a judge 'accidently' prssed 4 instead of 5 and they would NOT let the judge change it.
And let's not get into the Figure Skating judgin...if there has been anymore poitics in any other sport I have yet too see it. After watching the Pairs short program Saturdya night though it did seem rather fair.
(edited by Loosie on 11.2.02 1100)
Loosie.
Your friendly nieghbourhood Canadian.
See, my Canadian friends, this is why sports where there is judging SUCK! Sports where you shoot the puck into a net or put a ball into a basket leave no room for subjectivity. Judging HOW something is done makes for so much room for error. And for what it's worth, Brew is right about the robbery of medals.
He's Rolie Polie Olie - and in his world of curves and curls, he's the swellest kid around.
You guys are totally right. I mean, imagine if wrestlers actually had to perform for the DVDVR crew to see who's better. If I were a figure skater I'd take a stand.
Moe
Farooq is the man so hit your knees and start praying!
More proof that Olympic Judging is UTTER CRAP! The Canadian's Pair Figure Skating team just got ROBBED of a Gold Medal.
The Russian team performed before the Canadian Team, and they were really good the male just had one slip-up.
Then the Canadian Team went on and they WERE PERFECT! But for some asinine reason only 4 judges that it was the best performance of the night.
And again like BrewGuy this is NOT because they are Canadian. The WHOLE CROWD absolutly BOOED the marks when they were THEY knew they were robbed. had this been any other tema I would have said the same thing.
Yes we get a Silver out of it. But that CLEARY should have been Gold. Well the 44 year drought will become a 48 year drought.
My definition of "not a real sport" was always "if you can smoke while you do it, it's not a real sport." But I like the judging rule also.
The only modification I can think of would be for sports that have judges, but only as a last resort, like boxing and amatuer wrestling. I don't know if "last resort" is the best way to put it, but you catch my drift.
Moe
Farooq is the man so hit your knees and start praying!
I have never seen a more brutal example of why judged sports should be completely removed from competition than last night. The Russians screw up TWICE, and the Canadians are perfect...the the RUSSIANS GET BETTER MARKS?!?! An absolute fuckin' disgrace, period. And while I'm furious because it happened to two good Canadians, I would still be quite mad if I saw what I saw, and Canadians were not involved at all. Total, total horseshit.
Here's a couple headlines from Toronto papers for ya:
The best part of the whole pairs skating fiasco is the location of the judges who gave each side their best marks. From espn.com "The American, Canadian, Japanese and German judges scored the Canadians higher. The Russian, Chinese, Polish, Ukrainian and French (the French?) judges scored the Russians higher." Outside of the French who are just a foul smelly race, everyone else is the old cold war alliance.
I have never seen a more brutal example of why judged sports should be completely removed from competition than last night. The Russians screw up TWICE, and the Canadians are perfect...the the RUSSIANS GET BETTER MARKS?!?!
Originally posted by spf2119The best part of the whole pairs skating fiasco is the location of the judges who gave each side their best marks. From espn.com "The American, Canadian, Japanese and German judges scored the Canadians higher. The Russian, Chinese, Polish, Ukrainian and French (the French?) judges scored the Russians higher." Outside of the French who are just a foul smelly race, everyone else is the old cold war alliance.
Poland was in the Cold War Alliance with the USSR? I did not know that. Oh, and Canada SO deserved the Gold. No wonder there is so much security at the games, so no one offs those dumbass judges from Russia, China, Poland, Ukraine, and France (France...let's not talk about France).
...Some fear the Pink... ...But many fear....THE MOUNTIE! (He's handsome, he's brave, and he's strong, you know)
The reasoning behind the French voting for the Russians is that the French have a coupl ein the Ice Dancing that are one of the favorites...therefore they wanted to get in the Russian's 'good books' as there are NO North American judges on the panel this year. (For Ice Dancing)
TSN's saying that Pelletier is considering leaving figure skating because he's so disappointed with the results. I just saw the dance for the first time myself, and have to join in the chants of HORSE SHIT.
The judges are being investigated. Chances are the decision won't be overturned, but at least this crap is being looked into.
I thought the commentators Saturday night mentioned that the fall cost them .1 on the technical grade of the short program and that the technical grade counts for a greater percentage than the other grade.
Anyway, whenever you have human judges bias enters into the equation. There is nothing you can do about it.
They should be happy to be there and able to compete. Tis whole disagreement pulls attention away from one of the amazing stories so far which is the girl that skated on a broken foot. I can't imagine the pain she must have felt.
Does anyone know the criteria to be a judge in figure skating and how you get selected?
1. You must be old
2. You must be really stupid
3. You must be corrupt and willing to a) take money from countries, or b) strike a deal with another judge so each of your home countries gets a gold medal
Hey....I bet Vince Russo would make a good figure skating judge. Ohhh wait, he's not that old. :)
This could be interesting...imagine the TV spots. Here for the full story. It's always interesting to see contested primary and nomination fights, so this could be interesting.