Most Controversial Figure Skating Moment (On and Off Ice)

[Joe Mendoza]

apologies if the topic was already discussed, but curious, for those whose been a figure skating fan for a while, what they thought to be the most controversial figure skating moment - either on or off ice. for me, based on what I remember:

• off ice - Nancy Kerrigan attack in 1994
• on ice - Yuna Kim and her apparent loss in Sochi

 

[MCsAngel2]

2002 SLC Olympics Pair scandal (after the Harding/Kerrigan scandal).

 

[Mista Ekko]

• off ice - Nancy Kerrigan attack in 1994
• on ice - Yuna Kim and her apparent loss in Sochi

Well, Yes to both of your choices

The first one is the biggest figure skating moment, controversial or other
It's what got me aware of the sport and to start watching

The second one for me is the worst I felt about the sport
in all my years watching since, And that's saying something


I'll add a few random smaller ones:

On ice:
- Surya Bonaly refuses to accept her Silver medal at 1994 Worlds
- Lipnitskaya not showing up to her medal ceremony at Cup of China 2014

Off ice:
- Joe Inman stirring the Plushenko transition pot before the 2010 Olympics
- A bunch of ice dance teams signing a petition against Chait\Sakhnovsky's Bronze at 2002 Worlds

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

Katarina Witt and her controversial 'suggestive' costumes as they were called lol.

Surya Bonaly doing a backflip at competition.

 

[zanadude]

2002 SLC Olympics Pair scandal

This is the biggest to me. It spelled the end of the 6.0 system, fundamentally changing the sport.

 

[StitchMonkey]

I am not sure "Controversial" is the word i would use for Tonya vs. Nancy. I mean... no one agreed with that! If anything it was a moment of consensus!

Scandal, yes. Controversy, no.

That being said i think both are a great topic, even if i am being pedantic.

 

[alexocfp]

Obviously it’s Tanya and her goons v Nancy.

Got figure skating mainstream attention it might never get again. And made everyone skating in that time period rich.

The Sochi nonsense is just overblown and overrated.

It was just a close call followed up by a lot of whining. It’s not really a controversy, it was manufactured. A lot of the press were just sore losers.

I watched the programs like a few months ago. Didn’t see anything that was egregious. That‘s why I’m dismissive anytime someone tries to blame lack of results on judging. Unless I see real evidence, as opposed to rumors and innuendo, of a fix. A skater being hugged is not it.

 

[alexocfp]

Katarina Witt and her controversial 'suggestive' costumes as they were called lol.

Surya Bonaly doing a backflip at competition.

Looking back now, that costume fuss is hilarious.

She just believed in the “if you got it, flaunt it“ mantra. Haha

 

[lesnar001]

I think the "controversial" part of the whole Tonya-Nancy incident was that Tonya Harding was allowed to skate at the Olympics at all. I found the whole media circus to be a distraction. You'd think that Tonya and Nancy were the only two competitors there.

Ironically, the great "match-up" never even materialized. Tonya Harding did poorly in both the SP and the LP. I believe she finished 8th overall.

And that leads to another controversy....
The "broken lace" fiasco in the LP. Once again, a circus of sorts, only this time I believe it adversely affect Josee Chouinard, who had to skate out of turn. Maybe it was really an unfortunate mishap, but all it did was again shine the whole spotlight on Tonya Harding, who at that point had no shot of any sort of medal after her disastrous SP.

 

[rollerblade]

 

[Skater Boy]

THis is such a dangerous topic. One can argue though most are Kim fans that Adelina deserve her OGM. And the bigger controversy in 1988 was Witt winning gold; should have gone to Manley. And in 2002 using the 6.0 system it was still possible for the Russians to win gold. Artistry beats tech. I am just saying this could be a slippery slope but everyone can have their opinions. Ironically while I have met Jamie and David I kind of think the Russians got treated poorly at prior worlds and should have beaten the Canadians. THere are a lot of Hanyu fans but in 2014 many wonder does two falls deserve OGM or does a quadless Evan deserve gold over Plushy. I am not saying I agree or disagree but I can see major controversy. I think arguably the Zhang's winning osm with that fall and delay could be seen as controversy. A lot is simply perspective

 

[anonymoose_au]

Off ice - The horrible treatment of Adelina Sotnikova by rabid fans (some of Yuna, some not), including death threats, disgusting comments and just general vitorol for having the audacity to not hand over her gold to Yuna and grovel at her feet in Sochi. These fans are the embodiment of everything wrong in sports and I hope they come to regret their terrible behaviour (some still show up on Adelina's posts to call her names over 7 years later)

On ice - Surya Bonaly doing her backflip at Nagano, landing on one foot and everything! It's my first figure skating memory and it was boss!

Sorta on ice and off - Plushy jumping over the top step at the Vancouver Medal Ceremony. I was like , my mother was like "Say what?!" and the commentors (Scott and Sandra?) were shocked.

 

[Arbitrary]

Orser vs Boitano Olympics.

Battle of the Brians - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Greengemmonster]

This is the biggest to me. It spelled the end of the 6.0 system, fundamentally changing the sport.

Ooh what happened?

 

[anonymoose_au]

Ooh what happened?

Basically the gold medal came down to the artistic mark of the pairs long program.

The French judge sided with the Russian pair, Anton and Elena over David and Jaime. It was then revealed that the French judge had done this as part of a deal the French Fed made with the Russian Fed. In return the Russian judge in the dance event would mark the French dancers high to give them the win. (The French judge later denied this but an investigation suggested some shenanigans between the two Feds definitely happened).

There was also a feeling that the 6.0 system was too opaque and easy to manipulate. I think the International Olympic Committee in particular wanted a more transparent system so the Code of Points was developed that would assign points to every jump, spin, step sequence rather than making the technical score more of a "how far from perfect is this program'. I think they said that figure skating would be removed from the Olympics if they didn't fix it.

 

[Greengemmonster]

Thanks so much for taking time to explain that @anonymoose_au!!!

So fascinating to read about these things!!!

 

[ladyjane]

It wasn't a big 'scandal' or anything, but I recall there was a lot of discussion about the numbers 1. and 2. in the Pairs competition at the OG 1994 (both Russians by the way). In fact you can still find little films on Youtube either defending 'wuzrobbed' for number 2 by pointing out mistakes in the nr. 1 LP or defending the judging giving nr. 1 the gold pointing out how much softer the skating was as well as the connection. I happen to favour the numbers 2 myself (Miskuteniok/Dmitriev), but that's not to say the numbers 1 didn't do well (Gordeeva and Grinkov) so I expect it's a question of taste!

And I shouldn't forget the discussions about all the retired skaters who were allowed to come back (which used to be a thing: once you're in the pro-ranks, you're not allowed back into amateur skating and in 1994 it was made possible to return) which was a big thing for the nr 3 pairs who had been WC in 1993, as well as among the Ice Dance (Torvill and Dean came back as well) although in ID the 'returners' did not win gold (there was a lot of discussion about the judging of the Original Dance though).

 

[Mista Ekko]

A remark in favour of the "silent" readers , So you'll get the whole picture:

I see some posters here and there who are trying to downplay Sochi,
It was obviously a controversy because it's not everyday you get 2,000,000(!) people
to sign a figure skating related petition, It reached people from outside the sport
And that's just about judging, I'm not even opening the subject of systemic doping.

Everyone that follows skating knows there was something off with the judging
in (and maybe in some instances leading up to) that event, IMO people who think
everything was totally kosher are just happy with the result and don't wanna think about it.

Protesting what you find to be injustice or corruption doesn't make you a hater,
it is actually the right thing to do, Otherwise it keeps happening.

I'm sure there are threads from the past 8 years that specify all the details
for whoever's interested.

 

[readernick]

Protesting what you find to be injustice or corruption doesn't make you a hater,
it is actually the right thing to do, Otherwise it keeps happening

Of course protesting doesn't make you a "hater". However, bullying a teenage girl about judging she herself had no control over does.

I don't agree with the Sochi result and trying to reform bad judging/ favoritism is fine. But, the majority of the hate got directed to a 17 year old girl not toward the system that made it possible or to the judges who gave the marks.

It's a scandal because the judging was very hard to defend, true. But, the behavior of certain fans was also truly reprehensible. So, the scandal really has two parts.

 

[Mista Ekko]

Of course protesting doesn't make you a "hater". However, bullying a teenage girl about judging she herself had no control over does.

I wasn't talking about skater bullying, That's a different subject