Dick Button:
His thoughts on yesterday’s upset:
“I have absolutely no complaint whatsoever about this. In fact, I think it is one of the best occurrences to happen in the world of skating. I’ll tell you exactly why: because if, maybe, enough people are outraged by not the fact of who they chose, but the judging environment that was there.”
“Look, I don’t blame the marking that was there. I don’t blame the result. I just hope that there’s enough complaint about it that the real matter will erupt. Finally, the sport should get itself in order.”
On what he considers a flawed scoring system:
“Nobody stops to realize that it isn’t the figure skaters that control this, and they say, ‘Change the judging system.’ You aren’t gonna be able to change the judging system unless you change the structure. The [International Skating Union] is controlled by a speed skater. Guess who it was that created the new judging system? It was a speed skater. He wants everything to be measured as it is, and why does he want everything to be measured? Because, very clearly, he doesn’t want a new scandal, like Salt Lake. So he now runs the ISU until 2016, which is too late to do anything of major change before the next Olympics. By the way, there are many good things in this judging system, many good things, and many good things in the old system. But the two have to be carefully and cleanly brought together, the good out of each and the bad out of each.”
On his unapologetic stance on Olympic judging:
“I have loved the world of skating for too long to count, and I am wearing my sassy pants today. When you get to be my age, you can say what you want, when you want, and the heck with whether anybody else likes it or not!”
More at the Source:
http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2014/02/21/dick-button-skating
