Every season and acclaimed skater??? Hyperbole much? Who besides Tara Lipisnki and Johnny Weir said this? Let's not forget their carefully tailored politically-correct comments come after the fact, during taped delay broadcasts. Nobody knows what NBC "wanted" them to say, but we do know NBC has a self interest in preserving an image of integrity of the Olympics. What we know is the general consensus of commentators around the world showing the event live, felt that Kim Yuna was robbed. In fact, many felt Carolina Kostner should have been in the top 2. Robin Cousins olympic gold medalist - BBC commentator <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Q-_OJtxcC94" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Katarina Witt 2 time olympic gold medalist - German TV Commentator <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/vT07-Jc00jQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> More reactions from "seasoned and acclaimed" skaters and experts: "If Adelina was not from Russia, she would never get those marks," Dave Lease Naomi Nari Nam- 1999 silver medalist at the U.S. national championships. Similar sentiments: She says that she felt like Kim, not Sotnikova, was her pick to win gold. "I definitely think it was home court advantage [for Sotnikova]," she told The Wire. "It was very inflated." SOTNIKOVA WAS ENERGETIC, STRONG, COMMENDABLE, BUT NOT A COMPLETE SKATER. I FEAR I WILL NEVER BE ALLOWED BACK IN RUSSIA AGAIN.— DICK BUTTON (@PUSHDICKSBUTTON) FEBRUARY 21, 2014 BUT, COULDN'T DISAGREE MORE THAT YUNA &SATNIKOVA HAD BASICALLY SAME COMPONENT MARKS?..IN BOTH SHORT & LONG? HOME FIELD INFLATION #SOCHI2014— MICHAEL WEISS (@MICHAELWEISS2) FEBRUARY 20, 2014 Here are some undisputable facts, 1) The historical significance: Adelina's score of 149.95 on the free skate. The highest score she previously recorded with the SAME ROUTINE was THREE WEEKS AGO at the European Championships. There she scored a 131.63, or 18.32 points less than she scored on at the Sochi Olympics. The previous highest scoring free skate (and the world record) was Kim Yuna in Vancouver 2010. She scored a 150.06 in a flawless routine. Spoiler <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/noxpvATWzho" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> So what the judges are essentially saying here is that, Sotnikova's free skate (with the error) was better than all of her previous performances, even those where she performed same routine without the error. The score also implies that without that error, her free skate is the best in history. Better than Kim Yuna's 2010 world record free skate. Outside of Russia and prior to the Olympics, Adelina Sotnikova's personal best combined score was 202.36, at the European championships in January. Yet, she scored 224.59 in Sochi with the same routine. The judges at Sochi believed she was 22 points better than she was last month. 2) On technical aspects argument of Sotnikova having more jumps than Kim (which supposedly makes up for her two footed landing): Adelina had 7 more triple jumps (including one stumble) to Yuna's 6 triple jumps. If that is justification for Adelina Sotnikova's higher score over Kim Yuna, then how can we explain Adelina Sotnikova's higher score than Asada Mao? Mao's routine was more difficult then Adelina and she did triple axel (only female skater ever to do this). She skated cleaner than Adelina. She had 8 jumps to Adelina's 7. Explain to me how Asada got 144 points (with clean jumps) and Sotnikova got 149 points (with NOT clean jumps). 3) Questionable judge selection: a) Technical judging panel was led by the vice president of the Russian skating federation, Alexander Lakernik. b) The Russian judge, Alla Shekhovtseva, is the wife of the general director of the Russian figure skating federation, Valentin Pissev. c) The Ukrainian judge, Yuri Balkov, has a history of fixing the ice dancing competition at the Nagano Olympics.
Just to add US Gold Medalist and skating analyst Scott Hamilton also said the Russian won. I don't follow skating much and didn't even watch the free skates so I don't have much of an opinion on this but just based on all the opinions of experts it sounds like this was a close event and as it is an inherently subjective sport I have no problem with accepting that Sotnikova won. In my mind in sport that is inherently subjective there will be a home ice advantage and if that was enough to push her over the top if she was close then so be it. Frankly I think the Americans, particularly Ashley Wagner, just sound like sore losers.
Also if we are going to open up the complaint box about skating it sounds like the Canadians have a pretty good argument over the US's win in Ice Dancing over their pair.
Official says judges slanted toward Adelina Sotnikova http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...-olympics-adelina-sotnikova-yuna-kim/5680717/
Not sure if this had been posted before: http://msn.foxsports.com/olympics/s...ames-american-football-for-us-futility-022214 Dutch speedskating coach blames American football for US futility One Dutch coach had a lot to say when asked about the U.S. speedskating team's performance at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Jillert Anema blamed America's football-centric sports system for the United States' inability to win a speedskating medal through Thursday. The Netherlands, meanwhile, has won 21 of its 22 medals in speedskating events -- the most medals won by a country in a single sport in a single Olympic Games. Anema was asked if he thought the United States' controversial Under Armour suits contributed to Team USA's lackluster showing this year. His response was a mouthful. "The suit was one of the reasons, but not because it was bad," Anema said. "It is because they believed it was bad. In skating, you have to believe in yourself like Americans always do. Americans always believe they're right, always believe that they're the best. "That's not true." Anema added that instead of competing internationally, the best U.S. athletes compete domestically in American football, where talent is "wasted." "“You kill each other in American football. It's so rough, and because you like it and you've got all the money into that sport, there's not a lot of money in the other sports," he said. "Just nobody in the world wants to compete in that sport with you." He ended by saying, "You got zero medals. Zero, man." The U.S. critic seems to appreciate one American sport, though. He said he enjoys seeing the Utah Jazz play during trips to Salt Lake City.
Don't they play Rugby over there which is even more dangerous? Nothing he said is wrong though. We Americans like to be entertained, and speed skating is entertaining for a few days every four years.
In more refereeing / judging news I just saw that 3 Canadian refs are going to be assigned to the gold medal hockey game.
Does anybody know how to calculate these? I'm curious what the scores would be if we disregard the scores boxed in red and blue. Since the scoring takes away the highest and lowest scores, I guess all you have to do is pay off two judges. Wonder how much they got paid?
They don't do a great job of hiding bribery either. Where did you $50 billion go? Good job Russia on the most corrupt Olympics ever!
Wow!! Congrats to Russia, complete domination of the medals winning 13 gold and finishing with the most overall. Not without controversy, but deserved winners nonetheless. the biggest disappointment were Germany, who fell off the map and ended up behind the Netherlands in 6th. Considering the host nations have won the last two times, s Korea might force yuna out of retirement to win in '18!
Well, you've presented a very comprehensive argument. Weird how the panel was assembled with all the red flags. Pyongyang 2018, the fix is in!
Yes, an entire nation of 300 million people all believe and think exactly alike. Clearly that is is the case. What an "enlightened" position.
Do the dutch blame speed-skating for their incompetence in every other sport? 110 winter olympic medals all time, 106 are in speed skating. To their credit they do dominate in a sport that creates an artificially high medal count by having so many different distances. Good for them I guess, but I'll take being competitive in almost everything over being dominant at one.
Well there are no mountains in the Netherlands so skiing and such is only possible when you are on vacation. That makes it a lot harder to developed a skiing or snowboarding program. The geography and climate are not conducive to being great at many winter sports, speed skating is a national past time where the Dutch would skate through the channels, rivers, etc.
No, rugby is not a popular sport in the Netherlands. Very little of the violent sports are. Probably the most violent sport that has popularity is field hockey.
The same could be said about swimming where it is just the different distances but different strokes. To play Dutch devil's advocate as a competitor and coach of an Olympic sport I see first hand how much money and attention get's sucked up by football, basketball and in MN Hockey. I often wonder how good US Judo could be if we had 1/10th the access to the money, training and facilities that football has. I am not even talking about the NFL but NCAA football.
This. And the fact that we are a tiny country. Lets see how the US does when they can only select people from Texas, which had almost double of residentschap as the netherlands (afrond 16 million) Until 94 the US had Much more medals than the netherlands with speedskating. We Cannot help it of otter countries do not get better and we do. The US speedskating team was à joke this year. That being said i disagree with the conclusion of the coach.
