Shades of the East German judges back in the day, anyone???
MILAN — On Wednesday, France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron won the Olympic gold medal in ice dance, narrowly edging out heavy favorites Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States — and the turmoil over the outcome remains.
Both teams recorded their season-best score in the free dance, but ultimately Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron edged out Chock and Bates by a margin of 1.43 points after both nights of competition. Chock and Bates, the three-time reigning world champions, were clearly disappointed after the scores were announced and were emotional throughout the podium ceremony and during their media obligations later in the evening. Bates called their program their “gold medal performance” and both said they were proud of what they had done on the ice.
While Chock and Bates have remained gracious when asked about the judging of the competition, the results have sparked backlash — and conversations about inconsistencies and potential unfairness.
Full article, HERE from ESPN.
A couple of things first… I don’t know jack about judging any Olympic sports. I ‘thought’ they had leveled the judging issues years ago by throwing out the high and low scores. Watching the two performances, the US couple had less errors during their skate.
Now, having said that, it’s obviously ‘politics’ reared its head in this one. The French judge gave the French skaters something like 8 points more than the US skaters…
The International Skating Union weighed in saying, “It is normal for there to be a range of scores given by different judges in any panel and a number of mechanisms are used to mitigate these variations,” the ISU said, adding it has “full confidence in the scores given and remains completely committed to fairness.”
Sure they do… protecting what seems to be a long running issue with judges going back to the last Olympics, much less the international competitions…
Anyhoo, I think the US pair did better, and know they ‘should’ have won the gold, and apparently most of the other teams agreed!!!
Now back to your regular stuff…
Sigh…
I have maintained that any event which is Subjectively scored is an exhibition and not a sport, per se.
That includes gymnastics, figure skating and now even ski jumping has a subjective component to the score. Yes, it also extends to bull riding.
Sure, there are great athletes doing things most mortals couldn’t possibly imagine.
But a sport is scored Objectively. Who did it faster? Which side scored more points/goals/runs etc? You get the idea.
Enjoy the spectacular performances by the figure skaters. But don’t complain that A spun circles better than B and therefore should have ‘won’.
You made very good points.
I give you a 9 out of 10.
6.5 from the East German judge…
😁
If you follow college gymnastics, it’s amazing what a home crowd does for the scores. And an A plus to the commenter above who notes that subjectivity in scoring means it isn’t a sport.
A spicy burrito, some unexpected gas, and the judge misses that little move that would have allowed a 10, instead of a 9. That, or the costume reminds them of their ex, who wore the same color when they told them the relationship was over. When politics are added, the entire Olympic game endeavor begins to look like a big party, with the grifters at a buffet of petty thievery.
The Olympics long ago ceased to be about sportsmanship and became a matter of national pride above all – and we’ve seen many occasions where achieving that goal involved fraud and dirty tricks.
I tuned out many years ago as costs and media coverage went out of control and stories came to light of ridiculous requirements by IOC staff and unreasonable expenses.
Unfortunately, this is the predictable outcome of throwing away a standard if external behavior – we went from a system based on Judeo Christian ethics (whether you believe or not) to anything goes, get what you can by any means.
While the US is bad, many countries are worse. I fear for our future.
The laughable spin from these Pathetic Progressives on Davey’s board of Retards affected by the disease known as being Brainwashed. As They Are Wiping up the Illegals, Criminals, Deadbeat Lesbo’s, the “He-She” Boy’s, and the Child Rapists. As Daddy Came to Town and Laid down the Law.
Olympics has always been a mixed bag. Hats off to the Women Hockey Team.
I haven’t watched the Olympic Games in many years. Politics, crooked judges, professionals, and spoiled athletes are not what I want to spend my time on.
All- You do make excellent points, and I honestly hadn’t thought about it that way… But you’re right.
I’m not for the modern olympics.
The panhellenic games were a lot of different things.
Among them, they were an international competition that showed off a lot of military capabilities.
I don’t feel that the current games are an effective proxy for communicating anything important, and I don’t feel the other parties are worth that effort at communicating with.
It is not the cold war anymore, we don’t really seem to have any more credible peers or even colleagues.
Anywhere “judging” is a part of the process so too is politics. These days a LOT of international “judges” use their position to make statements. And a lot of them don’t like Trump and thus don’t like the USA. It’s a return to cold war judging practices…where the favoritism was ragingly blatant.
Bob- Point!
Dan- Agreed.