Article on (mis)judging at Eric Bompard | Golden Skate

Article on (mis)judging at Eric Bompard

Ptichka

Forum translator
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Here is my translation of an article on Eric Bompard, which concetrates much on judging. The author of this article is Artur Verner, a Russian journalist who's been living in Germany siince late 70's. He is very opinionated; many of you may find some of his statements racist, sexist, and homophobic; I'd say it's more about total abcense of political correctness than any descriminatory beliefs. Original is at sports.ru.

Unfair moves in the French fight.​
The French event of the Grand Prix ISU (International Skating Union) series is traditionally considered one of the most interesting competitions of the Old World. It’s here, as opposed to the German Gelsenkirchen that the best duelists of the World figure skating cross blades. And, even though this sport sees progressively fewer bright individual, and progressively more cloned jumping beans, Paris is still worth a mass, or any other service. I guess that’s why I, having for the first time in more than two decades missed the Oberstdorf competitions, still decided to visit the “Bersie” palace, as well as all that the French have built up around it. Excluding the Eiffel tower, Place de la Concorde, Vendome column, and other such Parisian tourist attractions. I’ve already seen those.

2004 Even promised to be interesting. In men skating, “Bersie” palace saw all the strongest skaters: Brian Joubert, Stefan Lambiel, Emmanuel Sandhu, Timothy Goebel, Johnny Weir, Ivan Dinev. Evgeny Plushenko was the one missing for a full picture, and I guess his armory just had enough armor for the deciding battles. “Ladies” list glittered with such names as Fumie Suguri, Joannie Rochette, Amber Corwin, Carolina Kostner, Julia Sebestyen. Representing Russia was the “B cast champion” Tatiana Basova, since there was no one else: Irina Slutskaya was busy in other events of the series, Elena Sokolova and Julia Soldatova were still not in shape, and the most gorgeous of Russian “singles” Victoria Volchkova chose to go to Germany for a traditional world class figure skating challenge in Gelsenkirchen.

Pair skating pedestal looked crooked from the start: People’s Republic of China commanded its two duos of the best fighters: Xue Shen/ Zhao Hongbo, and Quing Pang/ Jian Tong. Russia sent the battle worn veterans Maria Petrova with Alexei Tikhonov, and Victoria Borzenkova with Andrei Chuviliav. Canada went all out to send Anabelle Langlois/ Patrice Archetto, while the former Leningrad World champion turned American coach Vadim Naumov brought his no-longer Junior very promising pair Kathryn Orscher/ Garrett Lucash.

In dance, ice promised to be as dangerous as a minefield. It’s here that “Trophée Eric Bompard” could become “Trophée Eric Nightmare”. Here, for the second time this season, two teams eyed the top step of the pedestal: Russians Tatiana Navka/ Roman Kostomarov and Bulgarians Albena Denkova/ Maxim Staviski.

The competition was judged by a new judging system, accepted this summer at the ISU Congress in Hague. I must admit that the ISU’s attempt to use the new system to make figure skating more fair have so far failed. Neither the judges’ anonymity nor the presence of the so-called technical specialist and technical controller did not allow the best athletes to get to the top of the pedestal.

For example, the first three places in men single skating were pre-determined for the American Johnny Weir, Canadian Emmanuel Sandhu, and French Brian Joubert. Ultimately, that’s how it played: Weir won, Joubert came second, and Sandhu the third. Even though Sandhu, second after the short program, entirely messed up the long. Honestly, he should have been seventh or eighth. The judges though apparently shied away from offending the Canadian, who does not hide his non-traditional sexual orientation and is therefore far more feminine than should be in men skating. He was rewarded for feminine smoothness and finesse of movements with a very high second mark for “artistry”, which gave him the fifth place in free skate, and allowed Sandhu to return to Canada with a bronze. Perhaps this was a nice gesture on the part of the judges, but such behavior from the arbiters can only hurt the sport.

In pair skating, former world champions Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov waged a long and stubborn battle to surpass the Chinese. They only succeeded in part, ultimately ending up second, pressed in on both sides by the pairs Xue Shen/ Hongbo Zhao and Quing Pang/ Jian Tong. Berlin skaters Nicole Noennig with Matthias Bleyer, the fourth team in German rating, could not rise above the eighth place, leaving behind only the Israelis Julia Shapiro and Vadim Akolzin. It did, though, turn out that the first German pair, Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy, got invited to Moscow, to the former Cup of Chicken Broth*, where the former Junior World champion will try to make a noticeable announcement about her return to the big ice**.

There were many good ladies on the ice in Bersie. The skater from Canada Joannie Rochette took early lead. Closely following Italian Carolina Kostner, second after the short program, seemed ready to overcome the North American in the free, but chocked and barely held on to the second place. European champion Julia Sebestyen from Hungary literally jumped onto the third place from the fifth. Fumie Suguri and Amber Corwin has unexpectedly weak skates. The Japanese looked as if her body couldn’t adjust the inner clock from Tokyo to Parisian time. As to Tanechka*** Basova, she skated no so much as she could but as she wanted, and ended up quite happy with her eighth place.

Finally, on to the most beautiful and least objective type of figure skating – ice dancing. As mentioned above, here for the second time this season two teams eyed the top step of the pedestal: Russians Tatiana Navka/ Roman Kostomarov, and Bulgarians Albena Denkova/ Maxim Stavijsky. Bulgarians already won over the Russians in Japan, so the Russian Figure Skating Federations took all measures to avoid such embarrassment in Paris. Acting as the technical controller was no less than the chairman of the technical ice dance committee of the ISU, Olympic champion Alexander Gorshkov; a rather mediocre Polish dancer Andjei Dostatni as brought in as a specialist, and he acted as the manager of the figure skating division of the society for Polish-Soviet friendship.

And, despite the presence in the fight of the French duo Isabelle Delobel – Olivier Schoenfelder, talented dancers who once even trained with Tatiana Tarasova, everything went as planned. From above, judges got recommendations from the aforementioned Alexander Gorshkov (who shares last name, but certainly not ties, friendship, or moral with the coach Alexei Gorshkov), whereas at the bottom, at the judging tables, the certainly not sleeping beauty Alla Shehovtseva, having just celebrated an anniversary, took thinks into her finely manicured hands. Again the Bersie palace heard the double anthem, the loud part of which is the redone “Union unbreakable”, and the quite – “We need only victory, victory at any cost”.

Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov were pronounced winners; Bulgarians, having shown the most difficult combination of dance and elements were pushed to the second; the French had to make do with the third. When I asked one of the best ice dancing specialists in the world, the authoritative Elena Anatolievna Tchaikovskaya about the judging, she said she’d put the Bulgarians fist, the French second, and her compatriots third. I fully share her opinion, as the free skate of the team Navka/ Kostomarov can only be called first class in the sense that it looks like first class, or rather first level of difficulty. Even then Roman managed to mess up at least one twizzle. Bulgarians, meanwhile, are skating at the fourth [level of difficulty].


Footnotes:
* Galina Blanca is a maker of chicken broth
** Indeed, Savchenko/ Szolkowy came third at CoR.
*** Tanechka – diminutive from Tatiana.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Thanks for the nice translation, as usual, Ptichka. My impression of this author's style is that he is more interested in being cute than in reporting on the event. I thought his opinions on who was robbed, etc., were pretty much par for the course.

Hmm. I must be getting insensitive in my old age. I didn't pick up on racist and sexist expressions, and I found his criticism of Sandhu pretty mild. Is it sexist to say Victoria Volchkova is the most gorgeous Russian?

I noticed that he didn't say anything about Johnny Weir's style, presumably because Weir skated well and deserved the victory. I thought his criticism of Sandhu was more that he was held up on the second mark despite a bad skate.

Mathman
 

BronzeisGolden

Medalist
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Certainly, some of his comments aren't very PC. I didn't particularly like his description of Sandhu, but it wasn't cruel and he has every right to his opinion. I was surprised that he felt N&K should have been in 3rd! He definitely isn't biased. I'm not knowledgable enough about ice dance to make an appraisal. Does anyone agree? Were N&K (difficulty wise) that inferior to the Bulgarians and the French?
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
Pitchka - I loved the translation. He writes in the flair of 'gay camp' - very common style of hollywood reporters. I don't find Mr. Verner's writing objectionable at all. It is totally his views - some of which I have to agree and so much better than the usual critiques. :agree:

Joe
 

chuckm

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 31, 2003
Country
United-States
After looking at the protocols for the various GP events, I can understand the author's puzzlement at Sandhu's placement. At most of the competitions, even the ones he has won or placed on the podium, Emanuel Sandhu falls and receives -GOE on the majority of his jumps, yet scores very high on the PCS side.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Still, this seems to be the official line on Sandhu. A beautiful skater who makes a lot of mistakes on his jumps. At least the judges feel the same way about his skating as the fans do.

Mathman
 
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