This may just be a thing of mine, but I do worry about it. At the Olympic's in 2014 the Dutch won far too may medals at speed skating, mostly at long track but also some at short track. Personally, I didn't much care as my sport to watch is Figure Skating, and not some dumb speedy thing. In fact, I was pleased the Dutch won less Olympic medals in South Korea than four years earlier in Sochi because it just feels wrong when one country has sweeps, gets a majority of the golds and so on. A bit of domination is fine. If it happens once, but when it happens all the time worries come to the fore. I understood perfectly when ISU officials made remarks and commented on the Dutch dominance in some disciplines. And consequently changed some of the formats.
In Figure skating the Dutch aren't present very much, but the competitions are dominated by Russians, Americans, Canadian and Chinese (pairs especially). I love it, especially the pairs (where Germans won the Olympics, which was a wonderful outcome in this case) and definitely love all the good skaters. Especially in pairs. However, not one ISU offical makes remarks, comments and wants to change things despite the ladies division (and to a certain extent the pairs too) being totally dominated by one country for quite some time. Don't get me wrong: I think the Russian skaters, whatever the discipline, are very, very good and deserve medals. But sweeps (very prominent in juniors especially) aren't considered a problem according to the officials. I haven't heard complaints about the Junior Pairs Grand Prix Final being dominated by Russian Pairs. And of course the skaters in question aren't sport wise doing anything wrong, because they're definitely the best. No arguments there.
I'm not one of the people convinced that the judging is biased or whatever. But why is it a problem to be dominating in speed skating (and I agree that it's not good to have one country leading the way all the time), but it isn't presumably in Figure Skating? I tend to be totally in agreement with posters here who would like to see the best skaters, and not so much the best skaters per country, worldwide and I know that at least in 2 disciplines the Russians are the best (definitely), but why is that okay in Figure Skating but not in any other discipline? Why is it a problem if The Netherlands sweeps a podium in Speed Skating but it isn't when a Russian or American team does the same thing? Not to devalue any skater of skating couple, but I don't get it. There's even been quite a few speed skating presidents of the ISU (and the current one is both speed skating heritage and Dutch) with all its handicaps.
Sorry guys, I don't mean to whine (though it may look like it) but I just don't understand that dominance of one country is a problem in speed skating but not in another discipline. I could of course put forward the same arguments for South Korea but then I would refer to Short track speed skating......
In Figure skating the Dutch aren't present very much, but the competitions are dominated by Russians, Americans, Canadian and Chinese (pairs especially). I love it, especially the pairs (where Germans won the Olympics, which was a wonderful outcome in this case) and definitely love all the good skaters. Especially in pairs. However, not one ISU offical makes remarks, comments and wants to change things despite the ladies division (and to a certain extent the pairs too) being totally dominated by one country for quite some time. Don't get me wrong: I think the Russian skaters, whatever the discipline, are very, very good and deserve medals. But sweeps (very prominent in juniors especially) aren't considered a problem according to the officials. I haven't heard complaints about the Junior Pairs Grand Prix Final being dominated by Russian Pairs. And of course the skaters in question aren't sport wise doing anything wrong, because they're definitely the best. No arguments there.
I'm not one of the people convinced that the judging is biased or whatever. But why is it a problem to be dominating in speed skating (and I agree that it's not good to have one country leading the way all the time), but it isn't presumably in Figure Skating? I tend to be totally in agreement with posters here who would like to see the best skaters, and not so much the best skaters per country, worldwide and I know that at least in 2 disciplines the Russians are the best (definitely), but why is that okay in Figure Skating but not in any other discipline? Why is it a problem if The Netherlands sweeps a podium in Speed Skating but it isn't when a Russian or American team does the same thing? Not to devalue any skater of skating couple, but I don't get it. There's even been quite a few speed skating presidents of the ISU (and the current one is both speed skating heritage and Dutch) with all its handicaps.
Sorry guys, I don't mean to whine (though it may look like it) but I just don't understand that dominance of one country is a problem in speed skating but not in another discipline. I could of course put forward the same arguments for South Korea but then I would refer to Short track speed skating......