[staytrue]

Think of the team scoring like football.

The most you can score on any one play is 8 points.

In team ice skating, every team gets 8 plays (short programs in dance, pairs, men, ladies and long programs in the same).

The problem is the most you can score is 9 points in the short program and 4 points in the long program.

That is just stupid.

Because if you are behind by more than 16 points, you can’t win after the 4 short programs.

There are three more skates today and so the USA is eliminated from gold medal contention because it is more than 12 points behind Russia and you can only score 4 points per skating event.

[CaptainK]

So this is like gymnastics where there is a team medal. But the individuals can still score an individual gold, correct?

[grania]

I get what you're saying. The number of points awarded in the earlier, shorter programs is greater because there are more competitors to beat.

It's a shame that the point system is imperfect, but from what I see, they're all winniners. Skating that beautiful with talent from around the world is refreshing.