I read buttercup's post as saying - people just like to defend their favourites and when their favourites don't do so well people will criticize it as bad judging, even though that might not quite be right.
Ant - thanks for trying to explain my post. You know, I'm well aware of when my favorites are lucky with the marks, and I don't think it's good for figure skating for any skater to be overmarked
or undermarked. But of course it does not annoy me to the same degree as when skaters I don't like as much benefit in a similar manner
. So yes, I'm more likely to be
vocal about the judging in that case, and I imagine I'm not the only one. And Joe is right that this is not just true here - we all have some issues that we're more likely to express our opinions about. Since my post was specifically in response to somethign on this thread, I phrased it as I did. And you're right - we are probably more likely to see a score as being too low when it's one of our favorites.
No one can deny the great skate of Patrick that SP night, but the score, to me, was somewhat inflated. It will be difficult to overtake him by the contestants, so the gold medal has lost a tight race. It reminds me of Joubert in Tokyo who had such a huge score after the SP, then skated so poorly in the LP but won anyway because of the lead he held after the SP.
I just saw this quote posted in bekalc's post and I am going to go OT a bit because I feel this assessment of Joubert's 2007 Worlds LP has become widely accepted - and I don't feel it's accurate. So I'm going to shamelessly take advantage of your post
.
Joubert, of course, was coming back from an injury in Tokyo, and chose to skate a conservative LP. He did not do 3 quads, he did not do a quad combo, and he had some lower level spins. So it was not a top performance for him
in terms of difficulty.
Here's the thing, though: Brian did a quad, a 3-3, a 3-2-2, and a 3A. All three combinations were in the second half. I also think he had some level 3 footwork, and every single element had +GOE. IIRC, he was the only top guy and possibly the only man who did not get negative GOEs on anything. In short, he accomplished his goal: to skate the most difficult progarm he could at the time without making mistakes. For this he received a score of 157.21; I'm pretty sure that is the most he's gotten for an LP except for the 3-quad program. His overall PB remains 2007 Wrolds. Yes, Dai and Stephane did better. But that score was not too shabby, and in fact I think it has only been surpassed three times since: by Takahashi at 2008 4CC; by Buttle at 2008 Worlds; and by Jeremy Abbott at the GPF this season.
But this kind of ties in to this thread, too. I find it interesting that Brian Joubert has been criticized repeatedly for not going all out in Tokyo. Fans regularly applaud performances by skaters who choose not to do everyting they can - particularly SPs, from which the quads seem to have disappeared. The system now emphasizes good execution - perhaps too much so. Patrick Chan knows this, and plans his programs accordingly. Are skaters being too conservative now? I think in some areas, they are. I also think Patrick Chan was probably overscored yesterday. But he's doing exactly what he should: he's working with the system to make sure he's rewarded. That's smart.
I'd love to see the scoring tinkered with in some areas, because like Medusa I worry that we're nearing a point when the programs will become too similar, with all the guys trying to go for a specific style, whether it suits their abilities or not. I'd also love to see secret judging go away. But I'm not holding my breath on either.
But why is all the Americans classic styled skaters?? I wouldn't mind seeing Brandon doing something else then old heavy Strauss & Bach.
