Well since I haven't been to nbc to see the olympics yet and espn can't show footage I didn't see it. Doesn't anybody have any video of the performance or at least of the booing afterwards. I'd love to hear how much they booed the MFer's that screwed the Canadians.
Yeah, they were basically screwed. I've been dancing my whole life almost, and while it's not the same, there are lots of similar elements. The Canadians were fabulous! I could not believe how talented and beautiful they were. And I know it's not a traditional sport. But things like dance and figure skating take as much practice, sweat and heart as any other sport. They just look prettier!
Oh Canada....no gold for you....no gold for you...it's no gold for...YOU. Bad judging. What a SHAM! I don't care how many times Russia won it before. They lost this one.....oh yes....they did. The refs....bite me...your no better than NBA refs. Calling Mark Cuban...come in. Please come in. I will never forget those looks of those judges when the booing started. That's what you get....we got more of that....too. BOO!!! I, personally, did not see either team skate. My opinion has been completely shaped by the post-game fuss, interviews, and...yada yada yada. The emotion has led me to conclude our neighbor, Canada, was robbed. Surf
That was horrible! I watched both teams skate on tv last night with my brother. We started talking about how painful it can be watching figure skating since so many of them screw up in one way or another and you feel badly for them. This conversation was inspired in part by the Russian pair. Sure they stumbled once, no big deal, but what really stood out in my mind was that they looked tense and uninspired.... the word that kept popping into my mind was "clunky". I felt badly for them for struggling on the big stage like that. Then our conversation turned to the occasional brilliant performance that you can catch and what a piece of beauty that can be. Just as we were talking about it, the Canadians gave just such a performance. I kept noting how incredibly fluid and effortless they looked and how perfectly timed to each other they were. They nailed all of their moves without even a bobble. Their routine was flawless. The Canadian team got royally screwed. Who should have won? Cast your vote at Olympics.com. When last I looked, 95% of about 150,00 votes went to the Canadian team. What a shocker francis 4 prez, the booing only came after the Canadian scores (and the final outcome) were revealed. After that, the crowd was at least gracious towards the Russian pair. After all, they had no control over the results. Which reminds me... did anyone else notice the reactions of the Russian skaters after the results were revealed? Was it just me or did they look shocked and somewhat guilty about winning? I think they knew who the real winner was too.
Well they're investigating the whole thing now fellas: Inquiry on Skating Event. SALT LAKE CITY (CNN) -- The International Skating Union announced Tuesday that it will conduct an "internal assessment" into a controversial judging decision at the finals of the Olympic pairs figure skating competition Monday night, where the coveted gold medal went to a Russian pair who stumbled, rather than to a Canadian couple who didn't. In a statement issued after a routine review of Monday's judging, the ISU, the sports federation governing figure skating, said it will try to determine whether "the ISU rules and procedures have been respected." Canada's Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, the reigning world champions, skated what the crowd in the Salt Lake Ice Center judged as a nearly flawless performance in their long program Monday night. But five of the nine judges put them behind the Russian couple of Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze who took the gold. During the Russian pair's final skate, Sikharulidze bobbled the landing on a double axel jump. Fans in the arena who saw both couples skate booed and jeered as the results were posted. The decision has sparked outrage across Canada, where the headlines on two major newspapers read, simply, "Robbed!" "We have no control over this. It's not the [Russian] skaters fault, either. We do our job, and the judges do their job, and they are human, too," said Sale. "We're not sure what happened, but we're just really happy with what we did." Judges from Russia, China, Poland, Ukraine and France placed the Russians first; judges from the United States, Canada, Germany and Japan gave the nod to Sale and Pelletier. The results raised anew a long-running controversy over block voting, in which judges have been accused of voting together to favor skaters from their regions, broken down along Cold War lines. Four of the judges who voted for the Russians are from former Soviet or communist countries; the four who voted for the Canadians are from countries in the Western bloc. The French judge was the exception, going with the Russians -- somewhat ironic, considering that Pelletier is French-Canadian. After the decision, he told the Canadian media that he was considering hanging up his skates. "After a night like tonight, you badly want to cut your figure skating career short," he told the Toronto Globe and Mail. In the 1998 Nagano Games, a Canadian judge publicly raised charges of block voting in the ice dance competition, which led the ISU to issue new procedures to review controversial decisions.
Even if they did the right thing, what would it change now. It's a shame that those judges couldn't recognize who truly won.
The MFer's I was referring to were the officials, not the Russian skaters. I know they had nothing to do with it. Not that you would expect anyone to do this, but that woulda been cool if for some reason they had gone over to the canadians and given them their gold medals. Again, I don't think anyone would actually do it but it woulda been another nice slap in the face of the judges. Oh and I was watching an interview with the Canadians and the woman is hot. She didn't look nearly as hot skating (the practice video I saw) but who does. Anyway, why wasn't I alerted to this.
I'm amazed at the press this is getting. In the grand scheme of things, this isn't all that important an event, but I must admit that I'm moved by the support you Americans are giving our Canadians. I'm kind of ashamed to admit that the stereotype of Americans with regard to the Olympics is that you only pay attention to your own. This outpouring of support for our humble Canadian skaters is surely challenging that stereotype. Jamie Sale and David Pelletier are going to be on Leno tonight, btw, for those who are interested.
Damn Frenchies. I mean seriously, if we invaded France, would the world care? I think not. They would say "Damn Frogs deserve it". haha. oh. man. Im done.
I heard that the French and Russian judges made a deal. If the French judge put the Russian pairs ahead (regardless of performance) the Russian judge would vote for the French Ice Dancing pair. It looks like it was more of a dirty set-up than I even thought. Figure Skating requires athleticism (Miss America can;t be flabby either), but it is NOT a sport. If you have to get votes to win, it isn't a sport.
I have seen interviews with the Canadian pair, and they were really gracious and understanding. But I'd really like to hear what the Russian pair has to say. Has anyone seen an interview with them or has there been one?
Actually, there was an interview with Anton Sikharulidze in a Russian newspaper. I couldn't believe the stuff he said... that he and his partner deserved to win and their program was harder. He went on to take cheap shots at the Canadians, for example, for using the same program they had used three years ago (but not the whole time in between). Anyway, he's not going to get very far being a bad sport like that. I don't have a link to it, but if you want to see some discussion on this, go to <a href="http://www.fsworld.com">www.fsworld.com</a> and click on "Boards". Right now, they have separate discussion boards up for every event. I found this when I was surfing trying to learn more about skating.... some of these people are really into it and have no lives. The weird thing is that, at first, they sided with the Canadians, but now that it's been a couple of days and they forget how much better the Canadians' performance was, they're starting to wonder if everybody isn't biased the other way.
Thanks! I just finished reading an article that talked about what the Russians said. They were being quite arrogant, IMO. I'm still siding with Canada. If the Russians had skated as flawlessly as the Candians, I could understand that it would be this close. But the Russians stumbled and their show was very rigid. It didn't seem like they were comfortable with it. There's my 2 cents.
I think the controversy should not be ongoing and should have ended already. It's not fair to the Russian skaters since they had nothing to do with it. It has been said the Russian routine was more difficult than the Canadian routine. An interesting analogy was brought up in a news article I just read in a San Francisco article which states, "Would you rather have a Porsche with a nick in the fender, or an unblemished Volvo?". In the end, I think people need to get over it. So, they got the silver and the Russians won again....boo hoo. There are worse things going on in the world(like the war and our future). Stupid ice skating...who cares.
If we found out the Superbowl or NBA championship were fixed we would be up in arms. Oh wait, some have said they are fixed. Of course it is just figure skating, but along with the bribes to get the thing in SLC it is just another international embarrassment for the Olympics. Finally, if the Porche (sp?) has a bad day and the Volvo beats it in the 24 hours of Le Mans they don't rovoke the outcome because racing's grand politicians (<i>judges</i>) would rather lay (I mean drive) the Porche.
Some of the sports casters have been comparing this to finding out the winning touchdown of the Superbowl didn't count. I don't know if I would go that far, but I still think it's a huge upset for people that really love this event. Someone wrote in an article I read that the Canadians captured the hearts of the world, even if they didn't get the gold and people will remember that. I know I will and I hope others do as well.
Wow. This thread has been dead for a while. Now the Canadians and Russians have to share the gold. I think that the gold should be taken away from the Russians and given to the Canadians. And the only reason that I really care about it is because Jamie Sale, the Canadian skater is gorgeous. She has to be the best looking athlete. She is a lot better looking than Anna K. There are a lot of figure skaters that are gorgeous, but Jamie Sale is the best looking one I've seen by far.
I tend to agree with you Mo. They should take the medal away, but I understand they can't. On year at Region Band, the scores got calculated wrong (I only know this because I should have made it under the correct scoring). They forgot to drop everyone's highest and lowest scores. Well, they went back and redid it all. But the people that made it originally made it but didn't under the correct scoring procedures still kept a chair. It was the judges mistake, not theirs. I know it's not the same as the Olympics, but the Russian skaters didn't mess up the scores. It was the judges.
