[quote]Originally posted by savvy:
According to Canoe, The polish judge said that they they gave the nod to B/S because S/P's program was "2/3 years old." Whatever.

---

Actually, savvy, that is one of the unwritten rules of figure skating. You change programs every season. It's not on the rule books anywhere, but it's something that's just expected. That's why Michelle Kwan's decision to resurrect her signature Rachmaninoff short program has raised so many eyebrows. To the best of my recollection, the only gold medalist in any of the four disciplines who went with an "old" long program was Mishketounek & Dimitriev in 1992 (by coincidence, also one of Tamara Moskvina's pairs).

George, you have it right. Three other judges besides the French and Russian placed B&S first. I wish I could identify what countries they're from, but since all the controversy started, guess what? The ISU removed all the judges' nationalities from their scores & results site. If the investigation ends up eliminating the French judge, the ISU goes with the alternate judge, from the Czech Republic, who placed S&P first and B&S second. Keep in mind it still might turn out that the French judge wasn't really pressured (unlikely, IMHO) or that regardless of whatever threats issued, the French judge's honest opinion is that B&S were the better pair (definitely a possibility, although again, just my humble opinion).

One product of today's review session is that the nine judges will make public their rationales for the placements. The ISU did the same thing after the controversial Oksana Baiul/Nancy Kerrigan 5-4 split in Lillehammer, and it did a lot to quiet all the "Nancy wuz robbed" outcry. Right now, it's just wait and see.

Part of this whole controversy stems from the ordinals scoring system in figure skating. If you look at the technical merit scores, six of the nine judges chose the Canadians, three felt they were even. In artistic impression 5 chose the russians, two chose the Canadians, and two judged them even. Or if you just add up both scores, you would arrive at four judges choosing the Canadians, three choosing the Russians, and two calling it a tie. How the judging is translated into a winner played a big factor in the result.

On the other hand, if they scored the way most events would be done, B&S probably would have won, even if the Canadians had taken the free-skate in a close decision, because they would have had a significant lead from the short program.

Incidentally, the other three judges were the Poles, Ukrainians & Chinese.

I hesitated on piping up, since I have religiously avoided a single second of Olympic coverage, but I "amen" AU Tiger's views on contests vs sports. As a teenager, I watched Muhammad Ali in his out-of-shape mode get beat up by Jimmy Young, Ken Norton, Toni Tennille etc, yet always get the decision because he was the champ. Bad judging? Deal with it.

And the "cheated" pair were ice-dancing (that's what I call it) to the "Love Story" theme? I would've been chanting "Two... two..."

Slightly off-track: hilarious Baseball Prospectus bash (first 3 grafs) of Olympic figure skating, then praise for NBC's new use of "image overlay" in downhill skiing:

Gary Huckabay (Dumping the Bathwater)

[quote]Originally posted by BoSoxRudy:


Actually, savvy, that is one of the unwritten rules of figure skating. You change programs every season

---

It's expected for the "show" side of figure skating but it is not an unwritten rule. It may be considered a component in which, all things being equal, may tip the scale for one judge. You have to judge a performance based on what they do on the ice at that time, not in comparison to what a skater has done before. Of course judges fall pray to this type of thinking just as fans of the sport. It's much like the argument of whether a skater has to show emotion while skating, or whether they have the look of dread on their face while entering a jump, or use of overused music. They may take that into accound, all things being equal, which is the natural bias. But a judge should never ADMIT it.

Victor Pentrenko is another skater who won gold with a program skated for three years.

[ February 15, 2002: Message edited by: savvy ]

I take it back, it's not necessarily an unwritten rule. According to ISU Rule 322, "In marking the presentation the following must be considered: [blah blah blah] ... (f) originality.

You can definitely argue that a program that's going on its 3rd year is lacking in originality [oh my God, play a different record already!]. I don't think the judge's comment was inappropriate.

PS: Victor kept the same program for three year?!?! Is that the program he skated in Albertville? Well, even without knowing that, I thought Paul Wylie got screwed out of the gold medal in 1992.

[ February 15, 2002: Message edited by: BoSoxRudy ]

THe one he won with which is 92 I think. It was the Olympics after the one Boitano won.

[ February 15, 2002: Message edited by: savvy ]

Though I believed the Canadians should have been awarded the gold outright afte the judging scandal was revealed, the duel medals seemed like an adequate compromise. Now that the French judge who started the controversy is loosing all creditability by changeing her story, it would seem the ruling for the Russians as sole winners should stand.

This story gets 'curiouser and curiouser'. Overall skating is loosing a lot of creditability as a sport, but gaining tremendously in entertainment value.