Russian Audiences | Page 6 | Golden Skate

Russian Audiences

sky_fly20

Match Penalty
Joined
Nov 20, 2011
huge cheer from of the biggest crowd cheer I have ever heard
very happy for the support especially to Elena and Nikita :clap:
 

gmyers

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 6, 2010
Both vm and dw got tons of applause but I/k just stole the night hugely. Yeah the crows was partisan - big surprise- bit the performance for I/k was great. Crowd wasnt nuts for b/s either - applause was like dw and vm.
 

WeakAnkles

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 1, 2011
Do you ever think, that when skaters fall, the audience cheers not because they fall but to give them support to get up and skate on.

Usually when a skater falls, there is a pause. Sometimes that pause is filled with groans or some sound to indicate disappointment, sometimes that pause is silent (perhaps out of surprise or shock). THEN there is usually some encouraging cheers or applause. Ity all happens very quickly, but from my years of watching skating and other sporting events, that is usually what I've seen happen. Spontaneous applause when someone not from your home team or home country takes a tumble is schadenfreude.

Frankly I found the Russian audiences appalling. They were privileged--privileged--to watch the finest ice dancing competition in the history of the Games and their partisanship was disgraceful. Someone said they were cheering for other people besides Russian teams, but if they were they were the quietest cheers in the history of sport.
 

CanadianSkaterGuy

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
Yeah I don't get those who said cheering at the moment of a fall was to encourage skaters.

Usually cheers after a fall is when a skater opens their program with two falls or one very bad fall. And then the audience cheers them on to recover. Those cheers like when the Germans fell were blatant jeers for their loss and the Russians' gain.

I loved the Great Britain women's curling captain after besting Russia, when asked about the Russian audience trying to distract her with chants or cheering when she played blank ends on purpose: "yeah it's hard playing Russia, but the crowd doesn't really seem to know the game... when we deliberately play a blank and they cheer thinking we've missed... It's kind of funny actually". :laugh:
 

sky_fly20

Match Penalty
Joined
Nov 20, 2011
the energy of the figure skating arena was like a hockey rink :clap:
louder than any cheer I have seen, better than vancouver or previous games we witnessed
 

Barb

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 13, 2009
The positive point is that Russia really show support to their skaters. They are not the most diplomatic audience but they really are enjoying their own party.
 

ingofan1

Rinkside
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Frank Carroll says they are using it as an intimidation tatic no cheering for anyone. They are the rudest audiences I have ever seen in all my years of watching skating.No wonder their such poor sportsman getting platniuim medals after they lose.
 

Barb

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 13, 2009
the energy of the figure skating arena was like a hockey rink :clap:
louder than any cheer I have seen, better than vancouver or previous games we witnessed

Well, you are not lost, Polosatik from Mao forum was in the arena for ice dance and she said that for some weird reason the half of the audiece were fans of hockey, without minimal knowledge or real interest about figure skating and that they were really annoying. I guess the organizers gave free tickets.
 

draqq

FigureSkatingPhenom
Record Breaker
Joined
May 10, 2010
The reaction of the Russian audience is telling once you compare them to the Japanese audience, who respectfully stay during at a figure skating competition and cheer for both their country's stars and international skaters. They are extremely respectful and will give standing ovations to those who deserve it.
 

MidnightSkater

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 20, 2013
My two sisters were there last night & said the Russian audience cheered for ALL the couples.
This thread is just another way to bash Russia.
I'm American & can't believe how low some of you go just to trash other countries.
If you want rude go back to Salt Lake City 2002.
 

Baht Simpson

Spectator
Joined
Feb 17, 2014
I'm watching curling and I notice the Russians start a "Russia! Russia!" chant not when their own team is throwing rocks, but rather when the *opposing* team is throwing rocks. Since curling is about communication between teammates and concentration, it's an unwelcome distraction, and frankly rather unsportsmanlike. :rolleye:

I totally agree.

I was watching Great Britain vs. Russia. The chants from the Russian "supporters" of "Rush-Shi-A" was quite deliberate when the Brits were trying to make a shot, but there was a deathly hush from the crowd when it was the Russians' turn.

I was disgusted by their attitude. :mad:

So glad Britain beat them.

[And 'yes', I signed up and logged in just to make this comment to get it off my chest. :laugh: ]
 

vegarin

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 19, 2013
We will wait to wait and see what happens in the next couple of days, when the stake is pretty high for Russia with Julia and Adelina. :fingers crossed:
 

wootie

Match Penalty
Joined
Dec 21, 2013
Was I the only one who thought the Russian crowd was disrespectful?

I know the Russian skaters were skating on home ice and, obviously, Russians want their skaters to succeed. However, by the Ladies free skate, it became really obvious to me that the crowd had gone beyond supporting the Russian skaters and started revealing themselves to be tacky and graceless, especially in light of the fact that they got pretty much everything they wanted despite the fact that the results were dubious in both the ladies and ice dance events. I love how they didn't bother to clap or pay attention during Ashley Wagner's free skate because they only cared to see if Adelina would win the gold medal (of course she would). I also noticed that when Yu-na was waving and bowing to the audience after her free skate that almost none of the Russians were clapping. Only the foreigners bothered to show some respect and applaud. It was also really bad manners to start chanting "Ru-sy-a!" while Yu-na was graciously waiting for her scores in the kiss and cry area. Everyone should have already known the judges handed the gold to Adelina. At least show some respect to the skater whose scores haven't even come up yet.

Sigh. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else noticed this. What do you guys think? Look, I know the support will obviously be slanted in favor of the home team. But the level of fairness and tact displayed by the audience was soooo different in Vancouver and most of the other host Olympic cities.
 

Amei

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 11, 2013
If you look under the Olympics tab in the board, there has been a thread discussing this at length.
 

karne

in Emergency Backup Mode
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 1, 2013
Country
Australia
I watched as much as I could on my TV and I didn't have a problem with the crowd. They sounded like a normal partisan crowd. Of course they were chanting "Russ-y-a" at every opportunity. How many times do you reckon "Aussie Aussie Aussie!" was heard in Sydney? They were polite enough to clap for everybody, there were no boos or hisses or whistles (which has happened in other countries!), and they were ecstatic for their skaters.

I thought they were lovely to Brendan, that had the feel of a really supportive crowd. Or a crowd that had just had their hearts shattered five minutes ago and couldn't cope with seeing another heart shatter...
 

Sara

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 6, 2013
The behaviour of the Russian crowd was completely unacceptable. Only a few of the Russian spectators applauded when a non-Russian skater finished her performance. Many laughed and cheered when Gracie Gold fell... Incredible behaviour...

I know the Russian skaters were skating on home ice and, obviously, Russians want their skaters to succeed. However, by the Ladies free skate, it became really obvious to me that the crowd had gone beyond supporting the Russian skaters and started revealing themselves to be tacky and graceless, especially in light of the fact that they got pretty much everything they wanted despite the fact that the results were dubious in both the ladies and ice dance events. I love how they didn't bother to clap or pay attention during Ashley Wagner's free skate because they only cared to see if Adelina would win the gold medal (of course she would). I also noticed that when Yu-na was waving and bowing to the audience after her free skate that almost none of the Russians were clapping. Only the foreigners bothered to show some respect and applaud. It was also really bad manners to start chanting "Ru-sy-a!" while Yu-na was graciously waiting for her scores in the kiss and cry area. Everyone should have already known the judges handed the gold to Adelina. At least show some respect to the skater whose scores haven't even come up yet.

Sigh. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else noticed this. What do you guys think? Look, I know the support will obviously be slanted in favor of the home team. But the level of fairness and tact displayed by the audience was soooo different in Vancouver and most of the other host Olympic cities.
 
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