- Joined
- Nov 30, 2013
I know i'm a big fan of a bunch of Russian skaters, But i do want to get a focused debate going on this, Before the heavy competition starts:
-Did the Russian skaters benefit a bit too much in PCS?
-Did the crowd influence the judges a bit too much?
-Did the judges penalize a little less for Russian skaters who made borderline mistakes and so so executions ?
-Have non Russian skaters who are threatening Russian ones been over scrutinized ?
Possible examples so far:
-P\B of France having the biggest technical base mark of the night, But losing to B\S of Russia on PCS and GOE, a placing which cost France it's 5th place in the finals.
-Plushenko having a good clean skate, with high 8's for PCS placing him over Chan of Canada with a flawed skate, Which wouldn't of happened with a couple less points for said PCS.
-Osmond of Canada (Russia's main rival) going clean but finishing 5th with low 7's for PCS.
-D\R of Canada getting high 7's for PCS for a very risky and inventive SP, while Russian mega favorites V\T getting high 9's.
-Lipnitskaya of Russia getting + 1.40 for her Lutz combo, Which in every other competition this year got -1's because of it's takeoff, Thus finishing ahead of Clean Kostner.
-Plushenko getting +GOE for his wonky triple axle.
I don't know about the others because I didn't watch their skating much before the Olympics to say anything, but for Julia her flutz is always bordeline. Sometimes it is called harshly, sometimes it is not. Regardless, if it had been called, just like at Europeans the combination was fully rotated and had fairly good flow out so she would have received what she received there which would have still kept her in first place. In the short program at Europeans the combination wasn't quite as good as in the freeskate and with the edge edge call she went from what would have been a range of 1's and 2's to a range of -1's and 0's. Rewarded for the good aspects while penalized for the bad. Final GOE -0.20. In the freeskate the combination was better, but the edge call took her from a range of 1's, 2's and 3's to -1's, 0's and 1's. Final GOE 0.00.
I have not seen a HD video yet which shows the jump from the proper angle to determine whether she was on an outside edge, flat of the blade or had changed to an inside edge at the moment of take-off. Anyway, removing the GOE, she would have still been in 1st place. By nearly a point.