Quote Originally Posted by bekalc View Post
Whether or not people like the rule that did Oda in, the fact is the rule has been in place for a long time. IF this mistake was a one time thing, it would be one thing. But Oda makes this mistake all the time. It cost him a spot on the Olympic team, it cost him I believe a World Bronze medal, and he has continued to do things. So I'm not sure why anyone should feel sorry for someone who refuses to learn to count.
Something being in place for a long time does not warrant its rightfulness. One may argue that Oda is stupid for his inability to learn from prior mistakes. But IQ should not be a "critical" element of the scoring system aimed to measure skating abilities. I said "critical" because there have been many cases where one lost a medal due to stupidity. A good scoring system should minimize (and I understand it is impossible to totally eliminate) such interfering factors. At least, it should not be so critical enough that one would lose his gold multiple times for being stupid.