[Utah Girl]

Listen to the comments by the coach of the Russian pairs figure skaters. I think she's been hitting the vodka bottle a bit hard lately...

"This is an unprecedented decision that turned out to be a result of pressure by the North American press, and turned out in favor of the fanatically loyal" fans, Valentin Piseyev told Russia's NTV television. "You have seen how the public reacts to even the tiniest mistakes of our athletes, and how they absolutely don't notice when the Canadians fall or when the Americans fall."

I think I missed the part of the program where the Canadians fell... The Americans did fall in their skating, especially Todd Eldredge, and he was judged accordingly.

[Exigence]

Listen to the comments by the coach of the Russian pairs figure skaters. I think she's been hitting the vodka bottle a bit hard lately...

Methinks she doth protest too much.

[Yardstick]

"You have seen how the public reacts to even the tiniest mistakes of our athletes, and how they absolutely don't notice when the Canadians fall or when the Americans fall."

By pressuring the judges, the Russians were simply compensating for the bias against their athletes -- levelling the playing field, if you will. Surely there's nothing wrong with that. I mean, everybody knows that levelling the playing field is a noble and righteous thing, right?

[CedarDave]

There was a picture of them falling in the short program on another thread. I don't know though if it was part of the same medal competition or even at these games.