Why all the hate?

[mishieru07]

It's Figure Skating and come Olympics and Worlds, emotions tend to run high when we start pulling for our favourites to win. This is a subjective sport so it's not surprising to see two completely opposing camps (God knows how many times I've read hateful comments about my favourites). Hell hath no fury like a figure skating uber on a warpath.

I'm afraid of what's going to happen on youtube after the Ladies competition too. An explosion of hate-vids I imagine. The boards should be okay with mods around. Unless you happen to go into a Yu Na/ Mao forum.

[aftertherain]

Yeah, It was pretty gross. They had small screencaps of the letter but already that was too much for me. *cringes*

That reminds me. I'm not going to search for YouTube figure skating videos for at least half a year either.

[Nadine]

Hmm, I think you're right also, with the advent of youtube these wars have even exceeded what we saw with the Tara/Michelle wars.

I'm actually hoping Yuna wins to save us all from the hate I've read about when Apolo Anton Ohno won vs. the Korean. It continues on to this day. In fact just today I read this article: http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/van...v=ap&type=lgns

To spite everybody, I wouldn't be surprised if God has chosen Joannie Rochette to win, which I wouldn't mind at all. *smile*

[DesertRoad]

Pfft, anybody can have an internet flamewar. Freaking nerds using different Linux distros have worse flamewars than this. Until we have skating hooligans upending cars and burning them, I'm going to have to rate this with a great big yawn.

[NatachaHatawa]

Heh.

Passion. We're passionate enough to debate endlessly with people we don't know around the world about a sport we love. Things get heated.

I couldn't agree more. Most of it isn't hate - we just passionately have a ptoblem with someone's skating, the results etc.

[newvie]

Good god, if you think what's going on in these boards is hateful, try talking to some footie fans, or worse yet, attending one of them fútbol games. Or observe Korean speed skating fans. I think it was in 2002 or 2006, when Apolo Anton Ohno won over a Korean skater on a foul call, Korean fans responded by launching a denial of service attack on various American and Olympic websites.

I don't know if you follow that sport, or watched only olympic competitions of Ohno, but if I recall you of what has happened in 2002 (Salt Lake Olympic), it was a wrong (or dubious) call.
If it was just a wrong call, it's okay. It's not Ohno's fault. However, the problem was he claimed in interviews that he was fouled, the judges' decision was right and he so deserved the gold medal. I think that's what made Koreans angry. (I think some of them were overly emotional, though)
It was like Patrick Chan gets a gold medal and says that he deserves it because his performance was better than that of anyone else. (oh, and he doesn't forget to criticize other skaters)

Follow the short track speed skating for at least 1-2 years and rewatch Ohno's competitions (not just finals, but all the games) carefully. I wonder if he can really claim his play fair and honest; and blame other skaters for unfair play.

Btw, no offence to Patrick Chan. His score and his nationality at this olympic was just a good example for explaining that situation.

[Alatariel]

I thought the Olympics was supposed to be about the world coming togther, but for some reason this board has turned into a very hateful place.

Oh please! Where do you live?! Mars?!

People still can't stand each other but the polish of 'modern civilization' makes us be relatively polite. The intertwined economies make us live together in relative peace and that's it. Oh individuals get along but that's different. The US is at the moment, not exactly the darling of the world, to put it mildly. The Russians have the stigma of the old USSR and all that follows this particular gem. Many Euro countries ran afoul of them in those times so it's still relatively fresh but also, people still project those attitudes to today's Russians. When something like this happens, well humans are competitive animals and all those, nicely hidden animosities get to the surface.

Do you know just how many references to Plushenko as Eurotrash I've seen? How many references to Europeans as Eurotrash and similar adjectives? So this is the third part - the animosity between the US and Europe which is there, is not small but tends to be covered up with the 'natural allies' bull. Euros don't like Americans much in reverse either, not to mention the clash of cultures which is there, though again, people like to say Western world - nonsense. We are very different in some quite significant areas.

Finally, the Olympics have never been a coming together of all nations. It's a children's bed time tale. They have always been and are a way for countries to show their superiority in one way or another, and they don't care when it comes to the big boys how they get to it. I have no doubt the little ones would play the game but they just don't have the power for it. I won't even get into the whole part of the world that would love to see quite a bit of Western one in pieces.

So, when we get to Russia expect the same thing we got from Canada, only in reverse. I only hope the Russians don't put the lives of other athletes on the line like the Canadians did in luge in order to secure gold medals but I won't hold my breath.

Hate ... hate is here with us and closing your eyes to it is not going to make it go away.

[silverlake22]

I just really hope that if through some odd change in events someone other than Yuna, Miki, Mao wins ladies gold WITHOUT a 3-3 combination (or 3a in Mao's case) we won't be facing the same drama we are with the men's results. Like if Joannie or Carolina or Lepisto were to win, I'm sure people would have a lot to say about that. Granted, I don't think it will happen, but geez.

[#1Kerryfan]

I don't have hate for the skaters, but the commentators really get on my nerves. Scott and Sandra clearly WORSHIP some skaters.

[silverlake22]

I don't have hate for the skaters, but the commentators really get on my nerves. Scott and Sandra clearly WORSHIP some skaters.

CHAN (oh and Evan), they can't say enough about this kid, and I kinda get why, he's really good, but still. They also like to talk about how Brezina is just jumps and how his spins and overall skating aren't good, I thought that was kind of harsh, I think he's a great all around skater with a lot of potential. At nationals they were obsessed with Mirai and Christina Gao, both who I love so it's all good, but seriously they were promoting Gao as the next big thing, which frankly she is, but she's still only 15.

[Mathman]

I agree with the Original Poster. It's funny if you think about it. Here we are, grown adults (for the most part), hiding behind Internet anonymity to hurl granades at each other over the issue of whether one figure skater is prettier than another.

"I can't stand the Czech Republic because at 2008 Europeans the judges gave Tomas Verner a 6.75 in Interpretation, when I thought he deserved only a 6.50!!!! "

[mishieru07]

Finally, the Olympics have never been a coming together of all nations. It's a children's bed time tale. They have always been and are a way for countries to show their superiority in one way or another, and they don't care when it comes to the big boys how they get to it. I have no doubt the little ones would play the game but they just don't have the power for it. I won't even get into the whole part of the world that would love to see quite a bit of Western one in pieces.

I only hope the Russians don't put the lives of other athletes on the line like the Canadians did in luge in order to secure gold medals but I won't hold my breath.

Absolutely agree, the Olympics has always been a big show with countries trying to demonstrate how powerful they are. In particular, I thought the Beijing Olympics were very telling of the new world order and politics. Watch out USA; China's on the move!

I'm not a Canadian (and for the matter, I'm not North American) but I question your claim that the Canadians intentionally planned the luge course to be fatal (although I think a redesign should be in order). The Canadians don't have much medal prospects in luge going by the results thus far; might as well go politik for other events where they do have a good shot like moguls or speed skating. OTOH, to claim that they purposefully put the lives of athletes at risk is highly disrespectful to both the athletes and Canada imo. Don't forget, they're putting their own athletes on the line as well. All sports and physical activity entails some degree of risk and I honestly believe it was just an accident. F1 drivers have been known to die in crashes but I don't see courses being redesigned all the time.

I certainly don't mind Rochette winning gold! As long as she deserves it, I'm perfectly agreeable. I'm only afraid of Mao-tas and Yu Na bots.

[cygnus]

Do you think that the commentators on Russian (or Japanese, or French) TV were completely unbiased, pointing out Evan's strengths and weaknesses as well as Evgeny's (or Dai's) ? Do they ever "wuz rob"? I think it's easy to complain about US coverage, but I think that the commentators are doing exactly what every commentating team does- comment for the audience who will be watching- most of whom are people who do not watch skating apart from the olympics, and who want to cheer for the hometown skaters. Perhaps the Scott haters should listen to other countries' commentary or get a translation of it, and see what other countries do- I imagine it's similar (or worse!)

[Nadine]

I actually agree with the poster about luge & Canada. That's been on my mind since it happened. How they didn't allow athletes from other countries to test the fastest course on earth. One luge competitor succinctly stated that they were using the luge competitors as "crash course dummies", and her words turned out to be hauntingly tragically true. They have blood on their hands IMHO.

[Alatariel]

Absolutely agree, the Olympics has always been a big show with countries trying to demonstrate how powerful they are. In particular, I thought the Beijing Olympics were very telling of the new world order and politics. Watch out USA; China's on the move!

I'm not a Canadian (and for the matter, I'm not North American) but I question your claim that the Canadians intentionally planned the luge course to be fatal (although I think a redesign should be in order). The Canadians don't have much medal prospects in luge going by the results thus far; might as well go politik for other events where they do have a good shot like moguls or speed skating. OTOH, to claim that they purposefully put the lives of athletes at risk is highly disrespectful to both the athletes and Canada imo. Don't forget, they're putting their own athletes on the line as well. All sports and physical activity entails some degree of risk and I honestly believe it was just an accident. F1 drivers have been known to die in crashes but I don't see courses being redesigned all the time.

I certainly don't mind Rochette winning gold! As long as she deserves it, I'm perfectly agreeable. I'm only afraid of Mao-tas and Yu Na bots.

It's very simple. For two years now we have had talks about the danger of the course. Two years. There have been requests upon requests for additional training time. All denied. Look up how many runs have the Canadian athletes had? In hundreds. Look up how many runs have others had? In dozens (around 25 I think). If you know that the athletes are saying that the course is too dangerous and fast and you are denying them practice runs in the name of the medal game ... well. Let's not even get into that cautionary email when that one athlete had an accident, which is also his reason for not being in the Olys now, and warned of the dangers. That was last year. Look up the comments like the 'crash dummies' one by others.

It's not that the Canadians did something that others didn't do before them. The limit of time practice is a known strategy. The problem is that with all the warnings that were being issued, for a long period of time and with the accidents they still chose to play it out till the end. They took a risk. The Georgian paid for it.