What have been the sketchiest wins in major international competitions recently?

[hyperinflation]

In 2010, Patrick Chan skated two back to back competitions--I think it was Skate Canada and Cup of Russia--and he made every type of mistake imaginable. Skating into the wall--check! Going off his music--check! Falling after a jump--check! Falling during footwork--check!

lmao i remember that

patrick is a great skater no doubt, but he really doesn't deserve to be up there as one of the all time greats, even if he did win the gold medal in sochi. his last two world championships were kind of a joke, i really don't know what it is about him that makes the judges so wet. i was simultaneously disappointed when he lost in sochi and glad because it meant the isu's inexplicable love affair with chiddy was finally over. karma for two very undeserved world titles if you will

 

[Mafke]

It is funny to call Turin the one that got away as of all 3 Olympics Kwan was supposed to compete in- 98, 2002, and 2006, 2006 is by FAR the one she was the smallest contender to win. 98 she was the favorite, 2002 she was probably the favorite, and 2006 she wasnt going in as even close to the favorite.

IIRC Kwan was never a strong favorite, in 1998 the idea was that she and Lipinski were from around 50-50 to maybe 60-40 Kwan) while in 2002 she and Slute were about 50-50.

2006 was a major longshot.

 

[AngelENTL]

I'm prepared to be castigated for these opinions, but I was ok w/ Chan winning Worlds in 2013. I am not a huge fan of Chan off of the ice, but his skating skills are exquisite, and after seeing Chan's and Ten's long programs back-to-back, to me there really was a large difference in overall quality of skating in Chan's favor. And IIRC Ten did win the LP but just didn't make up enough ground to win overall. I thought in the end it was justifiable.

Baiul over Kerrigan in 1994 was a bit more controversial for me, and I could've gone either way. There is no question in my mind that Kerrigan beat Baiul in technical merit, but Kerrigan's program - the music and choreography - just didn't feel sophisticated to me. For some reason, Kerrigan seemed to connect with and skate her best to these weird electronic new age ditties. Although I've read that her 1994 long program was a Neil Diamond medley, if someone had told me it was another Mark Militano creation, I would've believed it.

 

[winky97]

Adelina's win tops my list. I said it before and I will say it again. Adelina's jump combination in the short program was junior level and should have had her sitting in 4th place after the SP. Instead, they had her pretty much tied with Yuna. Even if with Adelina's more difficult technical aspects of her LP (which would have been irrelevant had she been scored correctly in the SP) , she is no where near Yuna or Carolina components. This one has me more annoyed than any other that I can remember. It looks even worse in my eyes with he not going to Worlds.

 

[Alba]

Jamie/David 2002 Olympics. What a disgrace they were! Sore losers. They could not stand losing to an artistically superior Russian team on North American ice. They just cried, moaned, whined and threw a massive tantrum until the IOC forced the ISU to give them Olympic gold. I only acknowledge Elena and Anton as the rightful gold medalists from 2002.



Jamie and David were pretty good? It was the federation and the media.

Talk about a Canada hating post. woah!

Well, tbh it was the French judge so the IOC had forced the ISU to give them Olympic gold.
The Federation did their duty. The media, well are "whores" as usual.
Sorry for the strong word but that's what I think about most of them.

 

[Alba]

Sotnikova win over Kim. Yuna should've won on PSC's, only, by far. Honestly I would've given to her the gold medal also for her career, so I don't count.
Chan (practically every title )
Evan Lysacek in Vancouver
Katarina Witt 1988 Calgary (the only skater who cannot talk about the judges hwell: )
Klimova&Ponomarenko win over Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay in 1990 Worlds
Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay win over Usova&Zhulin in 1991 Worlds, or even beating Klimova & Ponomarenko for that matter, but I do think U&Zh were the best and robbed. Dropped from 1st to 3rd place in the end.
That was outrages, wining with a bad sequel of their previous (same costumes as well). Lucky was not the Olympics.
Grishuk&Platov win over U&Zh, although U&Zh FD was my least fav. of their repertoire.
Zhang&Zhang silver medal win over Shen&Zhao in Torino 2006
V&M win over D&W in 2012
S&P sharing the gold medal in SLC, but I have to say that B&S gave a justification. A petty justification (can I say that in english?) but still...the funny thing is that under the new system they would've won without any doubt.

D&W win over the only real Carmen I've seen, but I have to say I really liked Esmeralda too so....I don't know.
Gordeeva&Grinkov win over Mishkutienok&Dmitriev in 1994 Lillehammer almost broke my heart. I truly belive M&D should've won. Though again, in this case G&G were great too so I can also get the judges.

 

[Alba]

Grishuk/Platov had a number of questionable results throughout their career, but I think the worst was their victory at 1997 Worlds over Krylova/Ovsiannikov. The scoring of the free dance was absolutely outrageous to me. How can a team that finished well after the music get 6.0s in presentation? That is a clear failure of interpretation. Not to mention the inflated technical marks when Grishuk almost fell at one point and the last lift was a near-disaster.

I get question mark about the 6.0 (2 judges compared with 4 in Euros I think?) in presentation, but it's not clear failure of interpretation especially if you think about the music of that program. Increasing beat and very fast.
That "almost fell" and a "near-disaster" didn't diserrupt anything, and it did reflec in their tech. marks. They skated better in Euros.
That year G&P had the best OD (Libertango which was gorgeous) and FD, and they were very strong overall. Masters with the edges, constantly changing foot movements, intricate movements, dance holds, always facing each other, tremendous speed, good posture (although I prefer K&O in that aspect), extraordinary skaters. Their FD was extremely difficult and beautiful. You might not see the beauty but you can't possibly not see how demanding that was, and the execution.
I very much like K&O but they couldn't beat these 2 programs. During that era G&P were the strongest skaters, IMO.

1997 Worlds FD scoring was crazy. G&P should have been 3rd in the FD behind both K&O and B&K without a doubt, which would have dropped them to 2nd overall depending which of B&K or K&O won the FD (would have gone with K&O personally). Even 2nd in the FD behind only K&O would have lost them the title, although K&O got a huge gift in the Golden Waltz to tie for 2nd with B&K despite a big stumble.

Are you serious? You could draw a world map between B&K when they were dancing.
They skated side by side and hand to hand holds most of the times. Not to mention their CD's and OD's over the years. They almost never had programs with good difficult content. They had good edges, speed (yet slower than the top two), fun to watch and pleasant but nothing else I'm afraid. They were overhyped by their media, but never robbed. If there was any couple robbed post 99 it was D&V not the canadians.

 

[skatedreamer]

Oksana 1994 is still my first pick even post-Sochi.

Annett Poetzsch is my #2 pick

I'm still frustrated about Oksana 1994 myself, but in my mind the Sochi results are the worst by far.

 

[Skater Boy]

lmao i remember that

patrick is a great skater no doubt, but he really doesn't deserve to be up there as one of the all time greats, even if he did win the gold medal in sochi. his last two world championships were kind of a joke, i really don't know what it is about him that makes the judges so wet. i was simultaneously disappointed when he lost in sochi and glad because it meant the isu's inexplicable love affair with chiddy was finally over. karma for two very undeserved world titles if you will

I agree but Hanyu doesn't deserve really a gold medal nor Evan to their names - maybe the Olympics should have a right to deny medals lol. And to think becaue of the Team events Reynolds has a medal over Weaver and Poje. Brown and Abbott have medals but Kavaguti and Smirnov don't.

 

[Meoima]

I agree but Hanyu doesn't deserve really a gold medal nor Evan to their names - maybe the Olympics should have a right to deny medals lol. And to think becaue of the Team events Reynolds has a medal over Weaver and Poje. Brown and Abbott have medals but Kavaguti and Smirnov don't.

Sport is not an art competition where you can decide no one deserves the medals. Athlete have been scarifying most of their lives for the moment, they deserve the medals, despite all the mistakes. Sport is not a fairy tale story. Sport is about gut, comeback despite falling. I don't think giving no medal to the athletes that make mistake will show the true meaning of sportsmanship.

Like in a marathon you can't say to the one who finishes first that "we will not give you the medal because you fell". Yet at the same time you give the medal to the guy who came third because you think he was trying to be clean. That is not the nature of sport. How can you tell the one who came first but fell twice that he does not deserve the medal while he was certainly trying so hard?

 

[kasik8222]

Jamie and David and their 2001 Worlds gold are on top of my list (That was the most undeserving win for me and everyone is still complaining about Salt Lake City results)

 

[iluvtodd]

This wasn't a win, but for the life of me, I will never get over or forgive those judges who put Todd behind Alexei @ 2001 Worlds. While I realize that Alexei was injured (and I certainly didn't wish that on him or anyone else), he was flopping all over the place in his free skate (I do love his "Gladiator" program, but that was not the definitive performance of it). IMHO, Todd deserved no less than silver @ those Worlds after three very solid performances (qualifying round, short program, free skate). Unfortunately, the judges were so obsessed with the quad to the exclusion of all else back then. Nevertheless, Todd was such a good sport about it, and was thrilled to be on the podium after taking 2 seasons off from competing @ Nationals/Worlds (but keeping up his skating skills ). Rant over!

 

[karne]

Actually, it puts me in mind...Europeans 2002. Sasha Abt should have beaten Yagudin and everyone there (including Yagudin) knew it.

 

[kasik8222]

Actually, it puts me in mind...Europeans 2002. Sasha Abt should have beaten Yagudin and everyone there (including Yagudin) knew it.

I forgot to add this one to my list as well.

 

[iluvtodd]

I forgot to add this one to my list as well.

Oh, yes! :agree: I am not quibbling at all with Alexei's OGM, though.

Just realized that this topic stated recent wins, Oh, well. Hope you don't mind the digressions to earlier competitions.

 

[skatedreamer]

2014 was MUCH worse than either of those by an enormous margin to anyone who doesnt live in the United States.

:scratch:

That's a rather sweeping statement. Many US fans were far more upset by the Sochi results than by Lillehammer or Lake Placid. Speaking for myself, I wasn't especially focused on Fratianne/Poetzsch and have long since made my peace re: Kerrigan/Baiul even though I believe Kerrigan should have won (same re: Kwan/Lipinski). However, it will be a very very long time before I'll be able to view 2014 with anything other than disappointment and indignation. If ever.

 

[Memelah711]

What about Domnina/Shabalin over Belbin/Agosto for bronze in Vancouver?

This seems to be another one that you could legitimately argue for one over the one. Personally, I think the placement was correct, but I can also see how people can say Belbin/Agosto should've won bronze.

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

What about Domnina/Shabalin over Belbin/Agosto for bronze in Vancouver?

This seems to be another one that you could legitimately argue for one over the one. Personally, I think the placement was correct, but I can also see how people can say Belbin/Agosto should've won bronze.

I personally like B/A too (especially after D/S' hot mess of an OD), but there was no way that there was going to be 3 North American teams on the Vancouver podium. The outcry would have probably pushed V/M and D/W off the Sochi podium 4 years later and put I/K, P/B and B/S ahead of them.

 

[gmyers]

Sorry but Poetzsch wasnt even that controversial. In fact only Americans thought it was controversial at all, the rest of the world thought nothing of the result. Poetzsch won since she was alot better in figures. Their free skating wasnt even that different, in the long both skated cleanly with 2 triples, and Fratianne skated the most drab and boring Carmen ever, and still won the LP with .1-.3 higher than Anette by almost every judge. Her short program where Anette did an easier combination was scored much higher and 3 placings above. She still didnt win. Obviously Anette deserved the gold under the rules at the time due to her figures superiority.

Baiul over Kerrigan wasnt even as bad as potrayed. Nancy was just an ordinay skater who had a great competition. Baiul had much bigger jumps, more speed, and alot better artistry, even if she didnt skate her best that day and had a bit less technical content, she still had many things over Nancy, and it wasnt like she had any big mistakes either. I would have probably gone with Nancy over Oksana, but the only reason it was hyped as such a big rivalry was due to the hype on Kerrigan due to the Harding scandal.

2014 was MUCH worse than either of those by an enormous margin to anyone who doesnt live in the United States.

This is so ridiculous! If this is true how does Sotnikova still have the gold or Yuna doesn't have another gold yet?

 

[smileyhi]

I do believe that probably close to 99% of those that follow figure skating and understand it generally feel that something was very wrong with the judging in Sochi. You don't have to believe that certain skaters should have won .to understand that something was off about the judging and that it was disappointing for our sport to be embroiled in this sort of mess AGAIN. Everyone I know who follows skating has told me they'll remember the Sochi games more for the corruption than the skating. Not that the skating was bad (except in the Men's LP). It's just that every result is accompanied by a sour feeling that comes when you realize a lot of the skaters were scored unfairly and that the winners in some cases frankly just weren't.