My overall feeling about the figure skating competitions in Sochi

marcolee925 said:

Hi everybody. I have been away from both here and FSU for nearly 3 weeks after the ladies event. I am still not quite over the judging and the skating at all 5 events. If it's not too late and if people are still interested, here are my thoughts:

1. Team Event

Russian skaters, especially Lip and Plush, were way overscored, in both GOE and PCS.

I would definitely have Chan and even Han over Plush in the mens short program. I feel horrible for Abbott but him bombing isn't exactly a surprise. Perhaps bombing all 3 jump elements is. By this event. he had landed only one clean 4/3 and done only one clean short program with a 4/3 during all his years as a senior. His consistency with the quad was never good anyway, let alone in the short. I stand by my earlier thought of sending Brown to the short (as well as to the long). His elements are not as risky and he is generally more consistent than Abbott this season, especially in the short. Mens was never a strong suit for the US and they only really needed to stay in contention, and Abbott nearly took them out of it.

It is a shame Machida did not win the free skate or the PCS. He and Brown should have beaten everyone else by quite a margin in PCS. Reynolds was pleasant but did not at all deserve comparable PCS to Brown. Plushenko's PCS was ridiculous and should have averaged in the 5s or 6s aside from PE (in the high 7s).

Kostner hands down should have won the short, with Osmond and Wagner 2nd and 3rd in either order. Lip with her small skating and below-par skills and presentation deserved 4th at best and with PCS averaging low 7s. I would leave Asada in 5th because her triples were all quite suspect.

Gold should have won the free on GOEs and a slight PCS edge over Lip. Marchei's skating was beautiful by the way.

Not much drama in the team pairs event but I would say the Canadians were underscored compared to the Russians in the free. Same with dance.

I hate that the overscoring of Lip and Plush and the underscoring of Osmond killed Canada's chance of the gold. They need to do something about the scoring to make the free skate more important.

2. Pairs

V&T deserved the win even if the scores were crazy. I would have had P&T win the silver with the second best PCS of the night, and the bronze a toss up between the Germans and the second Russian pair. P&T was royally hosed on PCS.

3. Men

I do think Chan deserved to win the title by having a bigger PCS advantage in both segments of the event because his skills were better and (in the free) his mistakes were less serious. Hanyu deserved higher base marks and GOEs but he is not in the same league as Chan in PCS. Perhaps a 9.5 vs a 8.5. or 8.25.

I hate that the battle for the bronze came down to a technicality but Fernandez had no one to blame but himself for not having the scenarios worked out earlier. I like that COP allowed Ten to vault to a medal. I personally would have given the bronze to Machida, with Ten and Han rounding out top 5.

I would also have Brown and Abbott place a lot higher on PCS.

Felt bad for Kovtun. I would rather they take obvious advantage of the rules (have Plush withdraw right after the Team Event) than to deny a deserving skater his chance. Kovtun has had very decent and consistent international results for 2 seasons.

4. Dance

I feel results for the top 4 was right. I prefer the French but accept bronze for the Russians. At least it is THIS Russian team. W&P should have placed or at least scored higher.

5. Ladies

Boy. Kostner was way robbed of the title. Robbed I say. Kudos to the Russian Fed for acting fast right after Lip fell in the short. I respect Sot's abilities and skating her absolute best when it counted the most, but that was no more than a well deserved bronze medal. Kostner and Kim should have trashed her in PCS. I would have had Wagner 4th with the very well delivered revised S&D and Asada 5th with the 3rd best free skate of the night. Gold was much improved but when everyone delivered, I feel she was 6th at best overall.

Good for Wagner getting all that exposure but I only agree to half of what she said about the judging. Judges should absolutely be held accountable but I think the way the system is structured now is pretty transparent, with the protocols. It's the judgings or callers making weird decisions that's causing all these controversies.

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