European Championships Judging Scandal? | Page 3 | Golden Skate

European Championships Judging Scandal?

mzheng

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 16, 2005
wvgal57 said:
Seems Andy at the ISU boards doesn't think Irina crawled around out there at all. He says she maintained pretty well her speed through the program but even with her obvious off night skated as fast as some and even or faster than the others. Very impressed with Liashenko too!

Great to read a review from somebody actually in the building. ..

I think it's obvious she had an off night and I don't think it's anything to worry about.

Most interesting too, his take on Irina's pure power. Not masculine but pure power.. and just think about it, this was on an off night!!

Since you are so interested in his (Andy @ ISU) view of opinion. Think you may like to know what his blunt/honest view. Hope you'll like it.

http://forums.isu.org/viewtopic.php?t=675&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=90

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In the best possible scenario for Irina, at least Elena Liashenko and Susanna should have been in front of her. In a 6.0 system, and if I were sitting in the panel, also Galina and Elena Sokolova would have been placed in front of her in the free skate. On purpose I avoided this kind of discussion before since it was not my point to say how I would have judged that competition. To me, at least the Choreography, Performance and Interpretation PCS were ridicolously high.
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Joined
Jul 11, 2003
Vash01 said:
If you have not even seen the program how do you know Irina was held up? A skater can skate poorly and still win if others skate worse. Michael Weiss's win at USN couple years ago is another example of this.

There can be some corrupt people in an organization. It is wrong to say that every time a Russian skater wins it is due to corruption. The scandal in SLC was a creation of the N.American media. The people that say they are trying to save the sport are actually damaging it, creating a scandal where one does not exist. The latest example of this is the furor over Irina's European win.....a poor performance but still good enough to win based on how others skated. It is a competition between different skaters. It is not a pass/fail college exam where a certain minimum must be metVash
I know how important it is for you to see Russia as the greatest in everything they do, but I was not criticizing Russia in that post. Read it again.

True, a bad skate can win if the others have a very bad skate. A good skate can win if others have a very bad skate. (Think Sarah). The Euros Ladies were not at their best except Sussanna and Elena S. both of whom were marked down significantly, imo to accommodate the sloppy skate of Irina. I'm writing this not as an anti Irina fan but simply that she didn't skate well that Night! The game was to get Irina her distinction a la Sonia and Kat. The conclusion is that a bad skate got that distinction but her name goes on the list anyway, as Yagudin's did in another Euros.

How terrible would it have been if Susanna won the contest or even Elena S.?

The scandal at SLC was not created by the fans of skating or the whistleblowers. It was real. And much of it was swept under the rug. You have to face that. It is the prime reason that the revenues of figure skating are going down. This is fact. This is sad.

I am much more worried about the SPORT than I am about Kwan, Cohen, Phaneuf, Rochette winning gold in Moscow. Russia does well on its own steam. It doesn't have to set things up.
 
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