Yet more Olympic whining (unbelievable)

CNN ^ | 2/22/02

[Citizen of the Savage Nation]

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (CNN) -- Russian officials Friday said the judging of the women's figure skating final won by 16-year-old American Sarah Hughes was biased and demanded that the Russian skater who finished with silver get a gold medal.

[Citizen of the Savage Nation]

Alright, this is getting fricken ridiculous. I watched the whole thing last night and while I admit the Russian probably skated better than Kwan, in no way did she even have a shot at Hughes. Do the math, its simple: only Kwan could've lost to Hughes last night and still win the Gold; Slutskya would have to win the long program to win the gold and that she clearly did not do.

Folks, here's how it works...the short program was worth one third of the overall score, the winner would get a score of 0.5, 1.0 to second, 1.5 to third and so on...the winner of the long program would get 1.0, 2.0 for second and so on, and the rules clearly state that a tie goes to the lower score for the long program, and that was Hughes. The breakdown was thusly:

Short Program
Kwan - 0.5
Slutskya - 1.0
Cohen - 1.5
Hughes - 2.0

Long Program
Hughes - 1.0
Slutskya - 2.0
Kwan - 3.0

Total
Hughes - 3.0 (winner due to lower long program score)
Slutskya - 3.0
Kwan - 3.5

So for the Russians or anybody, for that matter, to complain, they are in effect saying that Slutskya beat Hughes last night, which as mentioned in the article, Hughes skated a difficult routine almost flawlessly and Slutskya skated an easier routine and made at least 2 obvious mistakes. This time, it really isn't that hard.

[anothergrunt]

Paybacks a bitch even if it isn't the Canadians on the receiving end.

[The_Victor]

Slutskaya

What a tragic name for a young woman.

[Paul Atreides]

The gold was, in essence, made worthless, when the IOC failed to take it away from the Russians and give it to the Canadians. Now, anyone with his tit in a wringer will probably get one.

[swatter]

The Russians are pulling a clinton. When caught cheating, they accuse someone else of cheating and divert attention from their cheating. This is classic clinton.

[foolish-one]

Too bad the Russians didn't get caught cheating - the French did.

[Citizen of the Savage Nation]

Bingo. As much as a crime as that was, the fact that the ISU and IOC bent over backwards to 'correct' things was the impetus for all this whining and bickering, IMO. That's too bad, because it makes us look bad.

I already see alot of comments from abroad about how all of this is representative of American olympics and that we shouldn't be getting any more olympics...as if the US had anything to do with any of this.

Hint: the ISU, IOC, most of the judges...European.

[onedoug]

Uh, these are (I'll be charitable) eastern Europeans. Cheating is a built-in part of the game.

[pt17]

his tit in a wringer

I'll bet you said "his" instead of "her" so you wouldn't get yours in a wringer :-)

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Nice post! I saw the skating on TV and agree with you completely. Sarah ran rings around all the other ladies. No one else was even close.

[INSENSITIVE GUY]

It seems like there is something everyday with these people.I would like to see them just shut down all this childish nonsense!

[supercat]

Too bad the Russians didn't get caught cheating - the French did.

Three of the judges were clearly sandbagging Hughes. Had Kwan or Cohen skated enough better that one other judge put either of them ahead of Hughes, Slutskaya would have won the Gold.

[supercat]

When caught cheating, they accuse someone else of cheating and divert attention from their cheating.

Was Michelle Kwan's or Sasha Cohen's program better than Sarah Hughes' program in any way? The only remotely conceivable reason I can see for three judges to have placed Hughes behind them is to sandbag her.

[BunnySlippers]

Alright, this is getting fricken ridiculous. I watched the whole thing last night and while I admit the Russian probably skated better than Kwan, in no way did she even have a shot at Hughes.

In fact every EASTERN BLOCK judge had Hughes in fourth place after the long program:
1. Slutskaya
2. Kwan
3. Cohen
4. Hughes
Amazing!!!!

[Paul Atreides]

Oh I'll say hers....I'm just so tired of having to make a statement and say "his or her." In most cases, the gals who protest the use of "his" in such statements, the word "his" pretty much applies to them as well.