- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
WallyLutz said:To qualify as a controversy in the eyes of the ISU, there should be - at the very least - a protest filed by a member organization re: the results, partially or as a whole, regardless whether the claim is eventually accepted or not.
I think an issue can be controversial without anyone submitting a formal grievance. The issue is the scoring of the three "artistic marks," Performance and Execution, Choreography, and Interpretation. Unfortunately for Patrick, he got caught up in the middle of it. (Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. )
Anyway, the points that I think are worthy of re-examination are as follows.
1. If a skater falls or makes other big errors on individual elements, should that have an effect on the three artistic components? After all, while the skater is sitting on the ice he is not performing, executing, interpreting the music, or delivering his choreography.
2. If a skater has marvelous skating skills and impressive transitions, does that mean that he should automatically receive high marks in musical interpretation, etc.?
3. If a skater does quads should we give him a bye in musicality, choreography, etc. Some folks have argued that obviously you can't do as much on the artistic side when you concentrate on big jumps, so a skater should get higher scores in presentation, etc., because we know he could do it if he left off the quads.
4. Should a skater get high marks in interpretation because he got high marks in interpretation all year, even though this particular performance was not of the same quality?
5. Where are all these 9's and 10's coming from all of a sudden? I don't recall Stephane Lambiel being showered with 9.5s, and he was way more musical, artistic, etc., than anyone out there now.
6. Why do we need three separate marks, when they are all the same anyway? Do judges really try to apply the criteria for presentation separately from the bullets for choreography, etc.?
In general, do we need a Joe Inman memo to address the question, why are top skaters getting such high marks in musicality for performances that have only ordinary musical or artistic merit?