Reactions and criticism of judging by Network commentators - NBC, CBC, BBC, etc | Golden Skate

Reactions and criticism of judging by Network commentators - NBC, CBC, BBC, etc

sowcow

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 10, 2014
Reactions and criticism of judging by Network commentators - NBC, CBC, BBC, etc

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Gross. Even Kurt Browning criticized the PCS score, and those commentators haven't said anything negative about the scoring all week.

Kurt Browning is pissed over Yuna's loss.


I noticed the few comments above in the Women's Free Skate thread specific to CBC's coverage whereby the commentators finally spoke out and DIRECTLY criticized the judging at the conclusion of the Women's event.

This definitely stood out for me too; as up to this point there had been NO DIRECT criticism of the Olympic judging by the CBC's "at-venue" commentators. Although, Kurt did come very close a few times during the dance event (...and you could tell he was biting his tongue to hold back the criticism!). But, that all changed when the results for Sotnikova (and especially her PCS scores) were posted! Placing Sotnikova ahead of Costner & especially Yuna was apparently the "straw that broke the camel's back" for Kurt. It took a few extra minutes, but eventually Carol joined in to declare she did NOT agree at all with how the event was judged either.

Although I only watched snippets of NBC's coverage, I did NOT hear any DIRECT criticism of the judging on their NETWORK coverage. Can someone verify if this was the case (for the NBC NETWORK coverage)? If there was judging criticism leveled, for whom was it for (e.g. for which event, or for which competitors, or for which country)?

What about the BBC? I believe I read a few posts about Robin Cousins expressing dismay at some of the judging? Can anyone give us the BBC angle on the commentators expressed views regarding the Sochi Olympic judging?

Cheers, Steve
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Matilda

Medalist
Joined
Dec 19, 2012
Johnny said after the SP that Adelina was scored "generously" and today something to the same effect after her FS, but no direct criticism. Both Tara and Johnny did indiacte that they enjoyed Mao's and Carolina's performances the most.

Tara and Johnny may be reluctant to offer any direct criticism becuse they seem to be on a mission to gain new fans for the sport, and suggesting that the scoring was unjustified would certainly not help their cause.
 

sowcow

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 10, 2014
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I found a few posts discussing various commentators views on judging:


BBC (Robin Cousins):

I watched on the BBC feed. I'm a fan of Robin Cousins, but he said something that irritated me. He mentioned Yuna got the Silver because she didn't compete all year and couldn't keep up or some other such nonsense. I agree that not competing did hurt her, not because she couldn't keep up (she's miles ahead of the others frankly as a complete skater) but because she skated so early that they really didn't give her the type of scores she would have received had she skated later. Mao should have been placed first in the long with Yuna second toss up between Adelina and Carolina for 3rd. I'm not sure how that would have panned out overall.


CBC (Kurt Browning & Carol Lane):


Here, in Canada the losers on CBC (Browning and that British woman) started to ***** about how Sotnikova is behind in her footsteps and artistry. Those are the same people that defend Chan and think he's a God.

Artistry my ***, she was the best!


German Network (Katarina Witt):

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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silverglass

Spectator
Joined
Jan 12, 2014
Italian commentators (I don't know who the men are, but the lady is italian skater Silvia Fontana) were absolutely pissed off, and not about Carolina's score but about Yuna's. When she ended her program they were ecstatic and were predicting a 150+ score, but when they saw it they couldn't believe it. After the two male commentators tried to understand the reason of the score but Fontana was absolutely firm on her criticizing it, she was really upset.
EDIT: now that I think about it they were openly speaking of biased judging at least on the PCS, saying that Julia's PCS was opening the door to inflating Adelina's had she gone clear; they said it after Julia's score and again after Adelina's
 

Near

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 25, 2013
Country
Canada
The CBC commentators where pretty much literally speechless when Kim's score came up. Browning mentioned he'd need to watch Adelina's program again to try to understand her score.
 

mintx

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 12, 2014
Terry/Tara/Johnny openly commented that a skater might receive a 3 point deduction for "Skating while not being Russian". At the end of the program they said they agreed with the podium. I agree with the podium too but not with the placements.
 

sowcow

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 10, 2014
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Here's an interesting PREDICTION of what will be said on NBC's Prime Time Network coverage later tonight:

This will definitely not be a scandal in the US. I can already hear Scott Hamilton and Sandra Bezic in my head telling the US audience how Sotnikova deserves the gold b/c she brought the (partisan) audience into the program. :laugh: What a crock. They haven't even said it yet, and I am still going to call for them to be fired ASAP.
 

MaiKatze

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 4, 2012
Like mentioned Katarina Witt was outraged, she couldn't believe it. Said she really likes Adelina, but there was no way she was better than Yuna. The commentators Daniel Weiss (on TV) and Rudi Cerne (stream) both former figure skaters were also not happy with the results and were openly critizising by saying they don't really understand the scoring.
 

s_parks

Record Breaker
Joined
Sep 25, 2013
Even Dick Button, who has pointed out Yuna's shortcomings more often than most others, had the highest praises for Yuna. Just read his tweets. Not to mention pretty much all the former skaters/champs have been saying she and Kostner were the best.
 

bekalc

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 1, 2006
Even Dick Button, who has pointed out Yuna's shortcomings more often than most others, had the highest praises for Yuna. Just read his tweets. Not to mention pretty much all the former skaters/champs have been saying she and Kostner were the best.

Paul Wylie said he thought Kim was tepid.

Also Per Michelle Kwan. While she preferred Kim's skate. Under this Scoring system, Adelina won fair and square. Because of more difficulty.
http://msn.foxsports.com/olympics/story/how-adelina-sotnikova-won-gold1-022014
 

Hamil

Rinkside
Joined
Feb 18, 2010
Jamie Sale herself said this:

Jamie Sale ‏@JamieSale 2h

Ok I'm not a judge but I just watched the #womansfigureskating again + I STRONGLY disagree w results like MANY others. #ISU now what?
 

Hamil

Rinkside
Joined
Feb 18, 2010
Michael Weiss ‏said

But, couldn't disagree more that Yuna &Satnikova had basically same Component marks?..in Both short & long? Home field inflation #Sochi2014
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Amazing ladies event all around....all the ladies came to skate!!! So fun to watch all unfold! #Sochi2014
 

Hamil

Rinkside
Joined
Feb 18, 2010
Philip Hersh said

"Now the other Russian, Adelina Sotnikova, is her country’s first women’s Olympic singles champion, thanks to a judges’ decision that may go down as among the most questionable in figure skating’s checkered history."
 

Hamil

Rinkside
Joined
Feb 18, 2010
ABC seems to cover this controversy tonight.



Christine Brennan ‏@cbrennansports 1h

We're talking about the figure skating controversy on @ABCWorldNews tonight. My @USATODAYsports column: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...e-skating-women-yuna-kim-gracie-gold/5643143/

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Christine Brennan ‏@cbrennansports 3h

Another Olympics, another huge skating controversy involving Russia. My quick @USATODAYsports column: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...e-skating-women-yuna-kim-gracie-gold/5643143/
 

Matilda

Medalist
Joined
Dec 19, 2012
I wish the skaters, journalists, and TV commentators would stop fueling the idea of controversy--there are more than enough nasty p[people out there who use it as an excuse to attack the athlete rather than the judging system. Ryan Bradley (who is also guilty of tweeting about his disapproval of the results--he must know there a rabid fans out there likely to verbally attack whoever they think has unfairly beated their favorite) tweeted that Adelina's Facebook page is getting littered by nasty comments. I checked, and that is incdeed the case.

I wish I was suprised that some people think it's ok to attack verbally a teenage athlete who just performed the two most brilliant skates of her life, but I'm not. And this is why I think it is irresposible of commentators, other skaters, as well as skating fans to be urging others to sign petitions and keep talking about the controversy. Let the federations take action if they feel there was foul play.
 

jaylee

Medalist
Joined
Feb 21, 2010
I wish the skaters, journalists, and TV commentators would stop fueling the idea of controversy--there are more than enough nasty p[people out there who use it as an excuse to attack the athlete rather than the judging system. Ryan Bradley (who is also guilty of tweeting about his disapproval of the results--he must know there a rabid fans out there likely to verbally attack whoever they think has unfairly beated their favorite) tweeted that Adelina's Facebook page is getting littered by nasty comments. I checked, and that is incdeed the case.

I wanted to investigate this, and the only thing I found is a brand-new Facebook fan page created today for Adelina Sotnikova which is getting the backlash. It's not Adelina's personal Facebook page. Obviously the comments are wrong, but it's not being sent directly to Adelina.
 
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