After watching nationals last night, and seeing Kimmie's triple axel, I began to think that these referees (around the world, not just here) and desperate to get women to try harder jumps, so they ratify anything that is landed on one foot.
ANYONE who watched Kimmie skate could see that her triple axel was VERY cheated. Some people think a skid take off is a cheat, so one could argue that the take off was cheated, but the landing, wow. The jump basically just came around and was nearly a half turn cheated which was very visible in both normal play and slow motion. I saw it and I thought, they can't ratify that! The triple axels Kimmie did that ABC played from the practice and warm up were cheated as well.
I think it's great that Kimmie is pushing the envelop technically, but cheated jumps should not be ratify under no circumstances and this isn't the first time they've ratified a cheated jump. Think back to Yoshie Onda's triple axel attempts as well as Yukari Nakano's--those were less cheated than Meissner's and people when nuts when those were ratified on various occassions. Even Miki Ando's quad was not totally clean (which I hate to say because I'm a huge fan of Miki and I think it's great that she tries the quad).
Is the skating community trying to make women do harder jumps by ratify these clean ones? Maybe? I'm not sure, but I think it's degrading. It shows they think women can't pull off the clean jumps so they just want to ratify whatever is landed on a foot, no matter what the cheat. Kimmie's triple axel could have easily been a half turn or even more cheated. That isn't a triple axel. It shouldn't be ratified.
ANYONE who watched Kimmie skate could see that her triple axel was VERY cheated. Some people think a skid take off is a cheat, so one could argue that the take off was cheated, but the landing, wow. The jump basically just came around and was nearly a half turn cheated which was very visible in both normal play and slow motion. I saw it and I thought, they can't ratify that! The triple axels Kimmie did that ABC played from the practice and warm up were cheated as well.
I think it's great that Kimmie is pushing the envelop technically, but cheated jumps should not be ratify under no circumstances and this isn't the first time they've ratified a cheated jump. Think back to Yoshie Onda's triple axel attempts as well as Yukari Nakano's--those were less cheated than Meissner's and people when nuts when those were ratified on various occassions. Even Miki Ando's quad was not totally clean (which I hate to say because I'm a huge fan of Miki and I think it's great that she tries the quad).
Is the skating community trying to make women do harder jumps by ratify these clean ones? Maybe? I'm not sure, but I think it's degrading. It shows they think women can't pull off the clean jumps so they just want to ratify whatever is landed on a foot, no matter what the cheat. Kimmie's triple axel could have easily been a half turn or even more cheated. That isn't a triple axel. It shouldn't be ratified.