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Let me try to simplify:

1) Figure skating is not a "sport" in the sense that there is very little objectivity about it. Take baseball for example. The greatest players in the game are in the Baseball Hall of Fame, in the end, because of their numbers. I don't just mean how many games they won--some of them played for also-ran teams--but things like batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, fielding percentage, number of home runs, total bases, runs batted-in, hitting with men in scoring position, etc. ad infinitum.

A baseball afficianado can argue these numbers back and forth, and opinions vary, but the numbers don't lie, in the end.

With figure skating, the only numbers are these fluffy, flighty things that this panel of judges puts up. And the screaming goes on and on about how the judges were "unfair", were "biased" etc. That kind of thing can go on rather easily because there are no subjective criteria.

2) Everything with figure skating is EMOTION. You can see it with the way its covered. It's the emotional reaction of the crowd, of the contestants, their coaches and the commentators.

That's the primary reason I make the analogy, "figure skating is to real sports, what 'chick flicks' are to legitimate cinema."

Sure you can have a fine, accomplished actress star in a "chick flick," but in the end it isn't about the depth and spectrum of human conflict--not just emotion but all the dramatic aspects of the human story--it's about rather one-dimensional emotions, evoking a tear-jerk response.

That's how I see figure skating. It's "how can I manipulate the emotions of the spectators and hopefully, the judges so that when they make their purely subjective determination (euphemistically called "scoring"), it'll be to my benefit?"

That's why all the controversy and, to the unpracticed observer, the totally confusing question of "how the heck did THAT person win and THAT person come in an also ran?"

In the end, I prefer something honestly, subjectively artistic, like ballet, where you don't go on the basis of some arbitrary system of scoring, but on the ADMITTEDLY subjective criteria of artistic merit.

I think "sports" like figure skating and the like are silly. Look at the athletes. In figure skating and even gymnastics, it's the "Battle of the Teenagers." It's really absurd. A "sport" in which a person is over the hill at the age of 19. This chick that won the gold is SIXTEEN YEARS OLD! She can't even buy a damn beer (legally) to celebrate.

With this new judging system based on bonus points for quad jumps and other difficult moves, it is moving toward respectability.

It may be an athletic skill, but an extremely difficult one none the less.