Plushenko's ridiculous PCS

It's the judges at fault, not plushenko

Vash01 said:

...but the comments I am reading here are giving me the impression that Plushenko skated horribly. ...However, I feel that Plushenko is being criticized way too much. ...They all deserved their wins, just like Plushenko deserved his. Yet I don't recall the skaters I mentioned being subjected to this kind of criticism. Plushenko was obviously under tremendous pressure and wanted to make sure that he would skate clean. It was not his best performance but there can be no two opinions about his win.
Vash

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I think just about everyone has started their comments by agreeing with the placement, so there's no argument that Plush won. I don't know that the other skaters you had mentioned were so obviously overmarked. It does seem really, really, really out there that he should have such incredibly high scores for a workmanlike performance. It was the best of the night, but hardly his best or a standout performance deserving of the scores. For me, that's what's so incredibly disappointing- there was no need to go overboard. Just judge it with some degree of objectivity and he wins. The scores indicate that there isn't any objectivity, or any attempt to do so. The criticism should (and mostly is, I think) be directed at the judges, who have failed again. Mixed in is some disappointment, which I think can be applied to just about every skater, that Plushenko didn't skate to his potential.

I really think the solution is to have professional, paid judges under ISU (or better yet, an independent international figure skating body) control, without secrets. Cut the federations out of the picture. And limit judges to ex-skaters.

No doubt he should have won the gold, but his scores were incredibly inflated. This worries me because I wonder if anyone will ever have a chance against him? I'd hate to think that judging for men skaters will be completely out of whack for 4 more years or until he retires.
I'd also like to see him skate a program that is actually difficult, beyond the jumps. I've seen him skate beautifully choreographed programs in the past and was very disappointed with what I saw in his LP this year. I guess he knows he doesn't need to push himself artistically to win, so why bother? :scowl:

i agree that he should have won, but not with those ridiculous scores... his technical element score seemed to me to be about right, but his program component scores i just didnt understand at all...

In Plushenko's defence, I thought all skaters' marks were inflated. Most of them got a PB with subpar flawed performances in both SP and FP. Do you think they are complaining about the generousity of the judges?

While I don't think there's any excuse for bad incorrect judging and inflated scores, old habits do die hard. If you look at the scores from the 2002 Olympics, when judges only had to remember two scores for each skater to place them, and they had pencil and paper, in the Men's LP:

1. Yagudin skated last, so there was no reason to overmark him at all, as long as the placement was correct

2. Four judges gave Yagudin a 6.0 in pre for a performance that was widely reported as being a bit conservative and without the verve he normally showed.

3. All four of those judges had at least one other set of scores that didn't include a 6.0 for pre and didn't change the tech placement of the two, in order to give Yagudin the first place ordinal:

Judge #3 (Allen): 5.9/6.0 vs. 5.7/5.9. She could have given Yagudin 5.9/5.9 or 5.8/5.9. However, this would have meant giving Plushenko and Yagudin the same pre score, forcing a 6.0 if she wanted to give him a higher one than Plushenko's.

Judge #4 (Bellu): 5.9/6.0 vs. 5.9/5.8. He could have given Yagudin 5.9/5.9

Judge #6 (Waldeck): 5.9/6.0 vs. 5.8/5.8. He could have given Yagudin 5.9/5.9.

Judge #9 (Bogdanova): 5.9/6.0 vs. 5.8/5.8. She could have given Yagudin 5.9/5.9.

All of the judges could have placed Yagudin above Plushenko by lowering the tech scores as well, so that Yagudin's tech was equal to or below Plushenko's.

Grade inflation is a habit, and as long as the judges are all in the same corridor, the ISU will either let it be, or will continue to use training to get the judges in line.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if there were a completely different set of judges for the short and long programs, and if the long program judges were not allowed to watch the short program or see the scores for the sp. They wouldn't have any idea how many points to award to be sure that their dude won!

you know, that's a really interesting idea. Seriously, they should think about that one. (Also, that means having twice as many judges...too much work for the ISU? )