millie said:
What qualities do you preceive that an Olympic Champion should have. Also, how do we know what the skaters are saying when a cameraman is not lurking around corners trying to get negative comments. I hope that at World's, the skater that skates his or her best, wins the Gold, not because of favourtism, dramatism, flapping arms or cheering and over-the-top screaming fans.
I'm not saying that an Olympic champion is the paradigm of all that is good and wholesome, but for one to have a sense of sportsmanship would be a start. Irina has always come across as being a sore loser, especially in the light of what happened at SLC. The incident I am referring to happened just after her marks were announced. The camera moved from Sarah and Robin, who were screaming and jumping after realizing that Sarah had just won, to Irina and Zhanna (her coach), and Irina was visibly angry and upset; she was crying, banging at the rails and saying something in Russian while Zhanna was trying her best to calm Irina down. It later transpired that Irina was dissing the judges and calling them "ugly pigs". I for one am glad that all this was caught on camera; if that does not show an appalling lack of sportsmanship then I don't know what does. Irina had only herself to blame for not winning the Olympic gold medal as it was entirely within her reach. She entered the LP in 2nd place, and all she had to do was ace her freeskate to be crowned Olympic champion. But she did not. After Sarah, Michelle and Sasha had skated, she took to the ice knowing what she had to do in order to end up at the top of the podium, but she didn't. She attempted no 3/3 combinations, had a crappy landing on her 3F and skated cautiously, laboriously and uninspiringly. So not only was she technically outclassed by Sarah (who performed TWO 3/3 combinations), she was also outperformed by Sarah presentation-wise. If Irina had skated her Tosca LP in SLC the way she did at Nagano Worlds a month later, then she could probably have won the LP and consequently the Olympic gold medal. Yet despite an underwhelming freeskate, compared to Sarah's, she still expected to win? Puh-lease. The judges are not blind.
Anyway, if Irina felt that she had been deprived of an Olympic gold medal, then she should have insisted that the Russian Federation file a protest and challenge the judges' decision. IIRC, this action was considered, but eventually not carried out. If the Russian Federation had an airtight case, then they probably would have done so, and if the IOC ruled against them, they could have appealed against the decision and go all the way to the CAS, like what the Korean delegation did in the case of the Men's Individual All-Around results at 2004 Athens Olympics. There are proper channels of expressing your grievances in sport and screaming "wuzrobbed" isn't one of them, especially when you do not perform to the best of your abilities.
Also, figure skating is a sport where competitors are given marks by judges to determine the winners, and not like athletics (where the fastest runner wins the race) or tennis (where the first person who reaches the required number of points wins the match). In any such competition, there will be room for subjectivity, and there will be times when a competitor will not agree with the results. If Irina wants to play judge and jury in every competition, then she has no business competing in any figure skating competition because the results may not always be commensurate with what she feels she deserves. As the saying goes, if you don't like the rules, then don't play the game. Simple as that. Nobody is holding a gun to her head and asking her to compete in the elegible ranks, she chose to do so voluntarily, so she needs to accept the fact that the judges decision is final and move on. Irina's incessant whining on how she was so "unfairly" placed in this competition or that only shows what a sore loser she is.
Do you think that Tara or Sarah had the qualities to be an Olympician? I though thought the years and years of long hour practicing and practicing in a cold rink, some people scrounging to get money to pay coaches, through sickness and determination, that's what makes a true Olympican.
Well I don't recall Tara or Sarah blaming everyone under the sun everytime they underperform on the ice, so that's a good start. Sarah has been a very positive role model for teenagers, not only has she realized one of her dreams (being Olympic champion), she was accepted to Yale (one of the most prestigious universities in the US).
