Pairs Skating ... we was robbed (1 Viewer)

[Jay Taylor]

Once this is all cleared up, the gold will go to the Canadians, and I hope the russians get relegated down to bronze or 4th.

Yes the Canadians deserved the gold medal, but the Russians deserved a silver medal. The Russian skaters had nothing to do with this scandal. They skated to the best of their abilities and waited for the judges’ scores just like all of the other competitors.

It’s the French, Russian & other judges that should be investigated. If they are found to be corrupt they should be immediately expelled from our country in disgrace.

Jay Taylor

 

[Luis Esp]

As expected, the medals will not be exchanged. I must send out kudos to Sale Pelletier for maintaining their dignity throughout the whole circus.

Imagine if it was the Americans who were robbed of the gold. The sequins would be flying!

Had it been me when the scores were revealed, I would have done a "Molly Shannon". Think of her interview on Rosie O'Donnell.

 

[Gui A]

They said they wouldn't take away the gold medal from the Russians. They said they wouldn't exchange the medals...

They didn't say they wouldn't take away the silver medal and give another set of Gold to the Canadian pair.

I think that would be a good compromise.

 

[MikeH1]

The truth is something about the judgeing smells funny. Whether its plain bias or corruption, I don't know. And after all, this IS Salt Lake City.
However, good for the skaters. They seem happy with the Silver and they both know that they were robbed of the Gold. Actually, the entire world now knows

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

Yet another in a long history of poor judgings in Olympic figure skating. The Russians not only blew the double jump, but the landings on both throws were shakey, unlike the Canadians who were solid throughout. These competitions have long been prejudged regardless of the actual performance. I feel sorry for the pair who know they should have taken home the gold. Everyone in that building knew who should have had the gold. This was a sham.

 

[ChristopherS]

The truth is something about the judgeing smells funny. Whether its plain bias or corruption, I don't know. And after all, this IS Salt Lake City.

This voting scandal should not take away from the Olympics in Salt Lake City, the Athletes, or the American spectators who have been very supportive of the Canadians in this issue. This is a problem for the ISU and the International Olympic Committee to solve. This is not a problem created by the Salt Lake City organizers. Hopefully the new IOC President will finally correct this problem and eliminate this sport from future Olympics until the ISU can fix their well known problems.

Chris

 

[Andrew Pratt]

Link Removed
This is the latest news regarding the french judge....

 

[Patrick_S]

Hopefully the new IOC President will finally correct this problem and eliminate this sport from future Olympics until the ISU can fix their well known problems.

There is absolutely no chance that the IOC would ever even consider eliminating Ice Skating from the Olympics even if it was just for one games.

This is one of the most popular events in the games and taking them away would hurt gate and TV revenues.

 

[Stacey]

I think the best outcome would be Canada being awarded a Gold medal as well (as if the skaters tied).

The strangest thing to me...every country in the world seems to be on the side of Canada except Russia who are totally accepting of the outcome (do the Russian people know that as long as the judging is under the ISU they will never lose?)

 

[Chuck Mayer]

This is an issue that has driven me crazy of late.

I am more than willing to concede some corruption exists within the ISU. But if it exists there, where else? How many medals has MY country won through backdoor methodology? I notice those are questions our media has not broached. It's an insult to the Russian skaters as well. While many are fine with dragging thhem through the mud, I feel it is tasteless, banal, and very haughty to do it. I did not enjoy Couric's miserable Today Show this morning where when discussing the French judge (already fully believing her to be guilty - which she well might be), she mispronounced her name, and then said on TV: "however you pronounce it." I guess that accused Olympic judges get less respect than newsworthy murderers.

While I do feel for the Canadians, I am ashamed of the self-righteous attitudes of many of my countrymen (and women). Would they be saying the same if the Gold had gone to Americans instead of Russians?

Take care,

Chuck

 

[Luis Esp]

I think they should leave the medal standings the way they are now. To give the us the gold would now just be for show. I don't blame the countries, I blame each individual judge for their lack of ethics. And the president of the IOC, what a wuss! Dude, get a backbone!

As bad as I feel for Sale and Pelletier, you can't help feeling bad for Elena Berezhanya and Anton Sikharduldize, no matter the circumstances behind their win, they're not even allowed to enjoy the glory of it and it will be forever tainted because of the judges's and the IOC "alleged" corruption.

 

[Ryan L B]

Did anybody hear on sports center how the Russian judge said that they don't know what the fuss is about and that the Russians deserve the gold.
By the way, will any of you be watching the Men's free skate sometime tonight on NBC

 

[DaveF]

Haven't posted in this thread yet, but I've followed it, and have followed related news. A few points I've gathered:
An Olympic medal has never been rescinded, or a judgement modified after medals awarded.
A high-level French Olympics official (I forget what his position is) stated that the French judge was emotionally frail, under a lot of pressure, and was manipulated to judging in favor of the Russians.
This is not the first known instance of score bartering in skating. (Sadly, in a previous occurrence, the whistle-blower was reprimanded and barred from judging, for causing a ruckus by the Int'l Skating Union. :frowning: After learning that, it's hard to listen to their self-righteous protestations now, against the IOC judges)

 

[TomF]

I am ashamed of the self-righteous attitudes of many of my countrymen (and women). Would they be saying the same if the Gold had gone to Americans instead of Russians?

How are we "self-righteous"? You may be right about other fixes in past competitions we don't know about, but this one is much more blatant and impossible to ignore. And it's not just people in the U.S. that are up in arms. It's people everywhere (except Russia). If the Russian pair in this case had been U.S., sure I bet many of us in the U.S. would be saying the same things that the Russians are saying now about their program being more artistic and difficult. I don't blame any supporters of the Russian team for feeling that way. But if judging misconduct is found to be the case, I know I would support a second set of gold medals for the Canadian team regardless of whether the cheat was in for a Russian or a U.S. team.

Tom

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Tom,

I appreciate the responses. I see nothing but news day-in and day-out on this. My venom would have been better directed at the media, I agree. My point is: to take away the Russians victory (which is NOT what people want, I know) would be unfair and horribly hypocritical. And fixes are fixes, blatant or not. I don't mind the criticism I see, just the attitude I see with it (and again, this is mostly Costas and Couric).

In other ways, we have other critical news occuring all over this country and the world that is not even getting a fraction of the attention of this story.

I hate the media,

Chuck

 

[Mark Pfeiffer]

To my untrained eyes, it appeared the Canadians skated a better routine; however, I'll dare say the reaction to this has been far overblown.

Certainly it looks like there may have been some funny business going on behind the scenes, but is anyone honestly surprised by this? Considering that figure skating is one of the few sports where there are few upset results--the self-fulfilling predictions often bear out--I don't know that this should come as a major shock. OK, maybe it's a little more baldfaced than before, but I wonder how much NBC's bluster on this has altered perceptions.

Their self-serving coverage, which has helped garner good ratings, has essentially decreed that the Canadians were the winners, no doubt about it. I guess I'd like to hear the justifications for the ruling, one way or the other, from those who don't have a vested interest (either in the winners or in the financial prospects from keeping this a hot story). Is it possible that the Russian routine was considered more difficult, so that even a slip amounted to less of a deduction than a flawless, easier routine? I don't know.

I am somewhat amused by the way NBC has essentially adopted the Canadians as if they were a US team. We're so desperate to see somebody from North America beat the Russians that Canada is good enough. (This isn't meant as a slam against our neighbors to the north.) Would reactions be the same and would the story be getting as much play if this had been the Chinese pair?

The Canadians are ultimately going to be bigger winners in all of this in regard to publicity and compensation, perhaps moreso than if they had won the gold. You can't punish the Russians retroactively for something that wasn't their fault, so forget about them getting stripped of the medals.

 

[Mark Schermerhorn]

Mark: not only the fact that they're Canadian, but I've seen more than one article claiming this wouldn't be getting nearly as much attention as it is if Jamie Sale weren't so pretty. I'd have to agree.

 

[Malcolm R]

The whole "level of difficulty" argument never plays with me. It's totally the choice of the team involved to decide what level of difficulty they're going to present. And I say that if you're going to pick a more difficult program, then you better be able to skate it clean. IMO, a botched "difficult" program does NOT equal a clean "less difficult" program when it comes to points.

 

[ChristopherS]

That French Judge has been rather busy: French Official
Chris

 

[MickeS]

According to MSNBC, the Canadian skaters will be awarded a second gold medal. More details in an upcoming press conference soon.

I wonder what hard evidence they have found that the thing was rigged.

/Mike