Posted the Olympics in case RM95 didn't want to read it still. Can't remember the specifics of his request, but figured I'd play it safe. Did anyone see the Canadian team get hosed in the couples figure skating competition? Only reason I really watched was because the woman on the Canadian team was really attractive. Now, I don't know anything about figure skating, but I do know that when the crowd gives you a standing ovation and the announcers are going on non-stop about how there's no way they can't win the gold, they skated a strong competition. So what happens? They get the silver and the Russians (who were good, but no where near as good IMO) get the gold. Can anyone that knows anything about figure skating explain this to me or were the judges just wrong/bad?
I watched late the other night and they said the Russians have a dynasty in that event...Something like the gold medal in the past 10 olympics have gone to the Russians, so maybe the judges give them "jordan-esque" type calls...
The Russians have been getting Jordanesque calls for years - that's why they have two sets of scores for figure skating. Technical is pretty solid, but artistic? Give me a break - the judges just give high artistic scores to established performers and those who are supposed to win. The judging on men's halfpipe was pretty sketchy as well. The gold medal winner was pretty clear, but 2nd and 3rd could have gone to any of 3-4 guys. I think the one non-American in contention got a little screwed out of a medal. (I thought the American in 4th got screwed as well, for that matter.) Did anyone hear that bridge players want to get in the Olympics now? You know, considering that at least bridge will have a clear winner and no judges, I'm all for it - as long as they can explain which part of faster, higher and stronger they qualify under.
The Canadians were robbed. The Russians had a flaw in there program and the canadians were perfect. I thought the commentators did an excellent job of calling it an embarrasment to their sport. Oh yea, I only watched because the Russian female skater was hot
Gawd, leave it up to those damn Russians to put a black eye in the sport of figure skating. Sincerely, Tanya Harding PS: Gimme five minutes alone with them...I'LL make 'em give that medal back!
It was one of the worst screw jobs I have ever seen. My wife and I watched and clearly the Canadians deserved the Gold, the announcers were right when they said they were embarrassed for their sport. Pathetic, DaDakota
Thanks for your support guys. We don't win many Gold medals, so when we are seemingly cheated out of one like this, it stings. It's the talk of the country this morning. Golden Fleece http://www.canoe.ca/2002GamesColumnistsPreGames/buffery_feb12-sun.html You can win on the ice, lose in the backrooms http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20020212/31491.html Sale and Pelletier earn silver for flawless performance http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2002/02/12/figure_skate020212
The Canadians got hosed. The actual performance is supposed to matter in a sporting event, the outcome is no to be determined by what you can do <i> in practice </i>. I really felt bad for the Canadian pair--maybe Canada should manufacture "Fools Gold" medals to send to each of the judegs and make their own "True Gold" medals for the real winning pair that night. Just another aside, the scoring system is completely bunk in that competition (I don't call it a sport). As best I can tell instead of using a statistical average where they throw out the extreme scores (e.g., diving, gymnastics), in reality each judge places the competitors in rankings 1-2-3 etc, and than assigns the scores. They also weigh technical marks less than the others. In effect, this system results in each judge knowing exactly who they pick, and you only have to win over 5/9 judges. So you could rightfull suck, get 4 terrible scores, but if you have 5 judges in your pocket you will win. If ya'll think the BCS is a scam you have no idea about this type of system.
Has anyone noticed the Cold War issue here? This happen with Kerrigan & whoever won the gold that year as well. For the most part, Western judges picked Kerrigan and Ex-Communist-Block judges picked the Russian or whomever it was. This time, the French judge sided with the Russian, though. Judges picking the Canadians: American, Canadian, Japanese and German Judges picking the Russians: Russian, Chinese, Polish, Ukrainian and French Sad that a sport is ruled by things like this.
You mean oksana baiul (sp?). I remember that. Kerrigan won one thing (technical or presentation) by .1 and baiul won the other by .1. Whichever baiul won was more heavily weighted and was used to break the tie so she got the gold. Dammit, when do the ****ing Olympics come on. I've seen like jack so far and everytime I turn it on nbc it's regular programming. I wanna watch the Olympics. I would've like to have seen just how bad the screwing was last night.
Which relates back to my point. It looks almost random, Kerrigan was ahead by .1 in one and Baiul (sp?) was ahead in the other by .1, and "Oh My" it came down to some fluke statistical tiebreaker for Baiul, that is too bad for Kerrigan. But in reality it doesn't work that way. The deciding judges (e.g., French in the recent case) said I pick Baiul and Russian pair--so I'll assign them .1 more on the artistic part and .1 less on the technical (as if technical is less objective anyway)--and get the winner they want. In short it has the pretense to being objective--"oh it was so close only a freak .1 difference by one judge determined the difference"--but in fact it is a strait ranking of favorites with the scoring system designed to obscure this fact. It is the pretense of being as objective as possible, but the reality of the system having the judges having as much subjectivity and control as possible--that's what really bugs me. I also think the judges are not allowed to give the same scores--notice there are no ties, isn’t that odd if 4 picked one and 5 picked the other but not one of them said maybe they are equal. Figure skating is closer to Miss America than it is to the Super Bowl. Well, at least Canada can bring home the Curling Gold, you know the USA will take out their hockey teams
just fyi: both of the announcers (hamilton and whatshername) are canadians. i didn't see it because, for the 37th consecutive year, i'm boycotting the winter olympics. i will not watch a single, solitary event until they allow naked lesbian pair skating. (crap, was i using my out loud voice again...?)
I think the announcers (Hamilton and Fleming) are both Americans. At least both won Olympic medals competiting for the USA. Also, why have so many great American hockey players like Gretzky, Roy and Lemuiex (sp?) played for the Canadian Olympic team. Did they not make the USA team in years passed?
Thinking of it in Cold War terms, I'd expect China to vote against the Russians, whom they have long hated. The Poles and Ukrainians would probably have voted for Russians during the Cold War, but I don't think they are very fond of Russia now (or then either, but they weren't at liberty to tell people that before). Though I suppose, in Cold War terms, it does make sense the Americans, Canadians, Germans and Japanese would stick together.
Major, ever noticed (probably been a long lost BBS thread) the correspondence between Electoral Votes in the last election and Civil War affiliation. Not just sports, creepy and sad.
