2014 Olympics Ladies Free Skate | Page 85 | Golden Skate

2014 Olympics Ladies Free Skate

fahrenheit290 said:
Yeah, ok, Elvis Stojko in NYT and Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir. For once Terry was the one bringing up the controversial judging. Enough with trying to whitewash everything. This was rigged against them from the start. Poor Yuna and Carolina. More people of high authority need to speak out...past champions, national federations.


http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...e-skating-women-yuna-kim-gracie-gold/5643143/

From USA Today: American skating insiders question Sochi judging

SOCHI, Russia -- One of the nine judges who picked a young Russian skater over two more refined competitors for the Olympic gold medal Thursday night was suspended for a year for trying to fix an event at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano.

And another is the wife of the president of the Russian figure skating federation.

Inflated scores for the Russians has been a topic of conversation at these Olympic Games, and the women's figure skating long program Thursday night renewed the debate. Adelina Sotnikova of Russia was the surprising winner of the gold medal, upsetting reigning Olympic gold medalist Yuna Kim of South Korea and Italy's Carolina Kostner.

"It's sad that I just presumed Sotnikova was going to get a boost (in points) because this was in Russia," former U.S. Olympic figure skating coach Audrey Weisiger said in a phone interview. "Isn't it sad that I automatically thought that? Not one person in skating I've talked to said that's the way it should have gone."

"I was surprised with the result," Joseph Inman, a top international judge who was on the women's panel at the 2002 Olympics, said in a telephone interview.

"The (judging) panel made me wish that the United States and Canada had split up into many different countries," said choreographer Lori Nichol, who works with Kostner and fourth-place finisher Gracie Gold of the United States, among others.

Judges from the United States and South Korea, as well as two other Western judges, were not chosen by draw to work the women's long program after being on the women's short program panel the night before. Two of their replacements were Ukrainian Yuri Balkov, who was kicked out of judging for a year after being tape-recorded trying to fix the Nagano ice dancing competition by a Canadian judge, and Alla Shekhovtseva, a Russian judge who is married to the Russian federation's president. Other Eastern Europeans were on the panel as well.
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May Russia never host Olympics games ever again.
 
Spinerette said:
Where did you hear that or read that? I would like to know what they said.
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Check out Dick Button's twitter

"Dear Yu-Na, you are a true champion. When I criticize, I believe in recognizing changes. You were a different skater today. Congratulations! Sotnikova was energetic, strong, commendable, but not a complete skater. I fear I will never be allowed back in Russia again."
 
jaylee said:
If you enjoyed the performance, great. But in terms of the program, no, this program was terrible. Carmen was a bit better. How do you explain Adelina acting like she's pulling on strings at the beginning of her FS? What does it mean? Is she a puppet?
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I don't understand what you meant. All I saw is a girl who was nervous at first, then pulled herself together after that to deliver her performance. I do believe Adelina had the best performances in this event, it was really exciting to watch her. Before this event, I didn't even heard of her name.
People have different taste, and my taste happens not to be Kim Yuna's this season performances. I was rooting for her in 2010, but not this time, because I can no longer sense freshness from her.
And for people who say that artistry should be scored higher than techniques, I strongly disagree. Figure skating is also a sport, and in sport you need strength, techniques and strategies. If I only want artistry, then I'd rather watch ballet, not a sport.
One of the main reason why I prefer man skaters over females is the jumps. If you just skate beautifully like a swan but take no risk, you would get a high PCS, likely. But I mostly want to see the fire and the strength in all their moves, they are athletes, so of course I expect to see that side. If you think about that criteria, i do believe Adelina really deserves it.
If I would have a preference, then I would say I like Mao's performance today the most. There's another girl that I like, Julia. She is fresh and adorable, talented, and she's still a kid. I really hope to see her next time.
 
Blades of Passion said:
I think a lot of the dislike for the result here comes down to the way the sport is structured these days. Yu-Na Kim has the potential to blow Sotnikova away in terms of artistry and deserve to win on the second mark, but the system simply doesn't allow her to breathe and create those moments. Too much time and energy is required for the spins and footwork (and unnecessary 3-jump combinations).

You can see that exact effect in Kostner's performance. If you watch her at Europeans, she made a lot of mistakes but the program was more intricate and far more engrossing. At the Olympics she skated her best ever technically, but that's because she held off on the performance and choreography to focus on the technical aspects.

Basically, the system is a lose-lose because real artistry is never rewarded anymore and the scores can be manipulated anyway.
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I usually don't comment on here but I have to agree. the excessively long footwork sequences, too many spin level requirements and 3 jump combos leave no room for skaters to actually connect with the audience and perform. I got into figure skating in 2009 but I have gone back and watch a lot of pre-COP programs and tend to prefer those. Skaters had more room for artistic freedom back then.
 
Blades of Passion said:
I think a lot of the dislike for the result here comes down to the way the sport is structured these days. Yu-Na Kim has the potential to blow Sotnikova away in terms of artistry and deserve to win on the second mark, but the system simply doesn't allow her to breathe and create those moments. Too much time and energy is required for the spins and footwork (and unnecessary 3-jump combinations).

You can see that exact effect in Kostner's performance. If you watch her at Europeans, she made a lot of mistakes but the program was more intricate and far more engrossing. At the Olympics she skated her best ever technically, but that's because she held off on the performance and choreography to focus on the technical aspects.

Basically, the system is a lose-lose because real artistry is never rewarded anymore and the scores can be manipulated anyway.
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BoP serious question what did you think of Asada's LP as it was today? I remember you didn't like it so much early on and I agreed but I thought she really redeemed it today.
 
Frenchie said:
Just to have stated my opinion:
Congratulations to all the ladies for beautiful performances!

Congrats Yu-Na and Caro for ah-mazing performances. It was close, but I personally had Caro just so very slightly ahead - though I'll admit it's partially due to having been surprised by just how good she was - 3F3T in the SP, and going for that 2A3T in the FS - and clean throughout!!!
Congrats Mao for an amazing, amazing FS! I was :jaw: the entire program. I'll rewatch this one a lot if youtube lets me!

Congrats to Adelina for earning the Bronze Medal with her best ever SP+FS.
Could you imagine how after seeing Mao skate today, Adelina might say "wow, I wish I'd one day get Mao's PCS scores"? Well, she won't ever say that again, since if she had gotten Mao's PCS scores, she'd have been second.
Akiko Suzuki also deserves much better PCS than Adelina, even today. 8.63 points is what Adelina got more. With that, Adelina would have been 3rd.
Scrolling through the ladies, I thought Kaetlin Osmond was a Lady I'd give about the same PCS scores (Adelina was strong in Presentation, but the other PCS marks should be slightly lower than Osmond imo)... She got 16.58 points less than Adelina. We know some is due to skating sooner, but the rest is due to... something else.
Still, as I said, Adelina should be proud for earning a Bronze Medal. I'm happy for her, but quite unhappy for Figure Skating.
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Thank you, Frenchie. Bronze would have been generous.
 
anotherday said:
PS: You should have seen Katharina Witt's outrage on German TV. I hope many others will speak up and forcing a change in the system. I think 2002 was nothing in comparison to today's and yesterday's 'competition'.
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Please tell us what K Witt actually said. Sorry if someone has already asked this question and you have already answered somewhere in these pages!
 
figurejennah said:
Adelina Sotnikova

2013 World Championship -Finishes 9th with a score of 175.98
2013 GPF - Finishes 5th with a score of 173.30

2014 SOCHI Olympics - Finishes 1(???)st with 224.59


Her score jumped over 51.29 points in last 2 months. BRAVO Russia.
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See also my analysis for the PCS of Asada, Sotnikova and Lipnistkaja during this season :):)
 
Putin says to Russian Federation president that it would be nice if a Russian girl won gold. Russian Federation president is scared for his life if that doesn't happen. So he ensures his wife is on the judging panel for the FS, plus the banned UKR judge from Nagano. I don't think Adelina was snubbed for her spot in the team competition, as media outlets have made it seem. She was always the bigger factor in the ladies competition, and the Russians knew it would be better if she was off the radar and didn't have the pressure to win.
 
I denounces the result of Sochi ladies figure skating as a fraud, and propose disciplinary sanction on those judges by ISU and a permanent ban of Russia for hosting winter Olympics.
 
CarneAsada said:
BoP serious question what did you think of Asada's LP as it was today? I remember you didn't like it so much early on and I agreed but I thought she really redeemed it today.
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Asada's program was technically stunning and she deserved to win the LP but the program isn't very good and purely in terms of performance it was nothing special. She had a blank, concentrated face much of the time and I could literally even see her huffing and puffing her cheeks for air going into that final 3Loop. It was a World away from what Michelle Kwan, Lu Chen, and others were giving us back in the day.
 
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