In the history of the Olympics, was anyone robbed? | Golden Skate

In the history of the Olympics, was anyone robbed?

tommyk75

Rinkside
Joined
Jan 19, 2004
Figure skating decisions have been full of controversies as every fan of the sport well knows. The Olympics have certainly not been immune to this. Just for the sake of discussion, let's air out any personal opinions on decisions that we thought were flat out wrong. Who, in your opinion, was robbed? Who was bolstered up unfairly? Let's all remember that judging skating performances is highly subjective for both judges and fans, so we shouldn't get too worked up about this; it's all a matter of what we happened to think as casual fans.

Personally, I remember the 1992 Olympic Games as being pretty bizarre. I thought Paul Wylie should've beaten Viktor Petrenko for the gold, and ditto for Dmitriev and Mishkutenok, who should've won over Gordeeva & Grinkov (D&M nailed everything, G&G, as graceful as they were, made significant mistakes). And two years later, I thought Nancy Kerrigan's loss to Oksana Baiul was also wrong, although I could understand it better than the '92 results. And of course, in the most recent Games, Sale & Pelletier should've won the gold medals outright without the whole messy fiasco that ensued.

What were the results that all of you guys had disagreements with? Why?
 

Spirit

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

(That's the sound of a can of worms being opened. :p )

Anyhoo, the only robbery I can really remember is Torville & Dean at Lillehammer in 1994. I don't remember any of the specifics, or even what they did (and stupidly I recorded over all my 1994 Olympic video tapes), but I distinctly remember feeling amazement when T&D got bronze instead of gold. At the beginning of his interview with them, Pat O'Brien made no bones about calling their third-place finish "highway robbery" on the air, and I agreed.

(BTW: I also thought S&P were the better skaters in Salt Lake City, but since they did end up with gold, I don't see how they can be said to have been "robbed," in the way you're defining it here. S&P&B&S, all four, got robbed of memories that should have been more beautiful, but that's another type of robbery and has been discussed in many other threads, so I don't think they qualify for this one.)
 

Ptichka

Forum translator
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Elvis in 94. He lost to Urmanov because of presentation, and I actually did like Elvis's unconventional aestetic all his own.

In 02, I though Drobiazko and Vanagas should have gotten bronze -- both FP&M and B&K fel, and D&V had a beautiful skate.
 

lulu

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 4, 2003
Yes, No and Maybe-depending on your opinion:p

They're are some instances where I would have reversed the order, where I think it could have gone either way, or some cases where I agree with the final results.


BTW-No matter what one's opinon is of S/P B/S, I don't think we can consider S/P to be "robbed" because they did get a gold medal. All of the other skaters kept their original medal.

(Warning this is going to sound really sappy...) Sometimes I think what is lost is that so many skaters gave Fantastic Performances at the Olympics. Sometimes this appreciation is lost.

And remember, you don't lose the gold, you win the silver
;)
 

JonnyCoop

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 28, 2003
Ptichka said:


In 02, I though Drobiazko and Vanagas should have gotten bronze -- both FP&M and B&K fel, and D&V had a beautiful skate.

It is true IMO that D & V definitely got short-changed in their free dance marks, but in the overall picture of things -- in order for D & V to have won the bronze, given that they were 5th in both Compulsory & OD, they would have had to have been 2nd in the free dance. They DEFINITELY deserved 3rd in the free, but IMO not 2nd; Lobacheva & Averbukh were surprisingly good.
 

BravesSkateFan

Medalist
Joined
Aug 7, 2003
I think B&S were robbed at the SLC Olympics. IMO they deserved that gold medal, and even though they were allowed to keep it, they were robbed of being the sole winners that night.
At the time I thought Nancy was robbed of the gold medal in Lilihammer, but I was only 14, and didn't know squat about skating. I have never gone back and rewatched the two performances (One day I'll get around to finding and downloading them so I can), but maybe once I do I'll change my opinion since I now know much more about the sport. So until then I have no opinion. LOL
There are other results that I disagreed with, but I don't think anyone was robbed. In those cases I think it was more of a split decision and could have gone either way, so I won't bother listing them.
 

jesslily

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 4, 2004
Comparing Elvis and Urmanov, I think Urmanov's total skating is stronger. Elvis has some weakness at some basic stuff, such as camel spin, sit spin, and the flow of inbetweens.
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
PLEASE KEEP THIS CIVIL! I know there are quite a few "Olympic Roberries" that can get out of hand... Tara Lipinski vs MK... B/S vs S/P.... come to mind as being trouble topics.....


just a friendly reminder! :)
 

LittleAngelCora

Rinkside
Joined
Nov 18, 2003
Although I was only eight, I have rewatched the tapes many times and truly believe that Nancy should have won in '94. I love how people say that Oksana won with her presentation when the major reason she won was because three judges gave her higher technical scores, which should not have been the case at all.

Courtney
 

Smiley0884

Rinkside
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
JonnyCoop said:
It is true IMO that D & V definitely got short-changed in their free dance marks, but in the overall picture of things -- in order for D & V to have won the bronze, given that they were 5th in both Compulsory & OD, they would have had to have been 2nd in the free dance. They DEFINITELY deserved 3rd in the free, but IMO not 2nd; Lobacheva & Averbukh were surprisingly good.

Yes, but if the FD finished like this:
3.D&V
4.B&K
5.FP&M

D&V would have still got the bronze if it finished like this right?
 

Kwanisqueen81

Rinkside
Joined
Aug 30, 2003
1994 was IHMO a one big robbary after another

Torville & Dean-should have won gold, Their free dance was WAY better than G&P.

Nancy-Blantant Cheating by the eastern bloc, giveing Oskana 5.9 for tech. I think it was a backlash from all the nancy/tonya media attention
 

Kasey

Medalist
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
My only thought of someone "robbed" at the Olympics was Paul Wylie in 1992. But his happiness and acceptance of the silver made the situation much better.

Kasey
 

thvudragon

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
lol, I don't agree with any of you. I thought B&S won the gold outright, Urmanov too.

Hm.... I think Irina in SLC. I now think it's obvious she should have won the SP. I think the LP is close, but either way, it's negligable, as at least, Irina should have been 2nd. Overall, I think she should have won gold.

D&V should have been 4th I think in 02 Oly. 3rd in the Free Dance, 4th overall, ahead of B&K, behind FP&M.

I&Z. I thought they should have won bronze, because they were pretty much clean (a little sloppy). They also had a great and difficult LP. They just had a horrible skate order (1st in the penultimate group).

Hmm... Maria too in 02 Oly SP. I don't understand how she was 5th, and Hughes 4th (I absolutely hated her Ave Maria SP, I regard it as the worst Hughes program I've ever seen.) I thought Maria should have been 2nd or 3rd.

TV
 

Antilles

Medalist
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
People thinking Paul was robbed in 1992 makes me think of Liz Manley in 88. It was a similar type of situation. Those are my favourite silver medal wins ever.

I remember thinking at the time that M&D were robbed in 1994. (Haven't seen the competition since then) Mostly though, I think there have been a lot of close situations that could have gone either way, and no matter who won, someone would have seemingly been robbed.
 

Callystarr

Rinkside
Joined
Sep 26, 2003


***1980 Olympics***
Linda Fratianne clearly outskated German lady, saw both programs on a tape and Linda was so much better to me.

***1992 Olympics***
Paul Wylie I believe outskated Viktor Petrenko hands down, but of course with Paul Wylie being very inconsistent during that time was not going to get the marks he deserved.

***1994 Olympics***
Nancy Kerrigan, virtually flawless performance including a 3/3 and superb maturity was just not enough for a flawed Oksana Baiul performance. Nancy Kerrigan was technically superb to Oksana, and in my opinion as far as the LP Oksana was not better than that of Nancy.

 

Fossi

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 23, 2003
disagree about SLC and Irina. I think the judges held her up all season and she was finally judged right at SLC. even if she was first after the SP, the results of the LP may or may not have been the same. You can't judge from that. MK may have gotten the fire and kicked some butt. In the end, Sarah kicked both their butts that night. Irina's LP skate was lucky to get her silver.
 

show 42

Arm Chair Skate Fan
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Anyhoo, the only robbery I can really remember is Torville & Dean at Lillehammer in 1994.

Totally agree Spirit........that's the only incident off-hand that I can remember really being upset about. 42
 

LarasB

Rinkside
Joined
Aug 4, 2003
Paul Wylie in '92, Nancy Kerrigan in '94, Torvill & Dean in '94-they all deserved the gold.
2002-B&S were robbed of enjoying their gold medal, after all, they were not responsible for the judges' decision.
 
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