FR LIVE EVENT-Olympic Scandal Press Conference..

MSNBC.com ^ | February 13, 2002 | Kelly O' Donnell

[codebreaker]

Sandra Bezic with the commentary..

[discostu]

True enough, recovery frequently weighs in (how quickly, how it seemed to effectthe performer mentaly for the rest of the routine.

[DJ88]

Yes, but I can't go now. My husband's great aunt died and he has to go to WI.

Some Al Qu'aedaguy just blew himself up in Yemen...after being cornered by Yemeni Security forces...and threatening to blow up the police with grenades..?????

[staytrue]

It would be nice if each judge gave a reason for their scoring.

From past olympics, for the upcoming ladies events, I have inferred that the rules are roughly as follows:

1. you must not be an instant success just for this olympics. no matter what you do, gold is out.

2. if you want to skate in the final 6, you must skate with speed and cover the rink 2 or 3 times. You can fall on a jump, but if you cover the rink and the opponent does not and skates clean, you are still ahead.

3. to make the top 3 in the short program, you must not fall and you must land the triple double combo.

4. to win gold, you must land a triple triple in the long program

5. you must land at least 5 triples in the long or you can forget about a medal, you must have some grace and style or you can forget about a medal.

After these rules, I have no clue what the judges are looking at. I would really like it if the judges could explain how and why they give the marks that they do.

[RightlySo]

Canadian girl is a rotten loser, a very bad sport. To call winning a Silver medal at the Olympics "losing," is beyond tacky.

Are you nuts? And where did the Canadian girl, Jamie, EVER say that winning the silver is "losing". I'd like to see that. From the interviews I've seen, the Canadians have been dissapointed, yes, but always dignified and classy about the scandal. She never said that to my knowledge.

[discostu]

Check out what the Commish posted in 346, he give both the short and long scores.

You must have a really cool TV, you actually could read the thoughts of the judges and figure out why they were shocked huh? As for being Mr. Know It All, if you'll review I suggested a possible reason they were. No all knowingness there, just reminding you that the world is filled with shades of gray.

[Chief Inspector Clouseau]

Did you even watch it?

I don't think he did watch, based on his assertion the Canadians were lucky to win the silver. Also, speaking for him here, disco thought that the ISU guy did a very good job at the press conference today. As Dave Barry would say, "I am not making this up..."

[DJ88]

My argument isn't with you Petronski, so Buttoutski.

Ya know, I really don't give a flying FLIP ...but the fact is THAT we ALL KNOW the Canadians didn't fall on their asses during their performance, and the Russians did NOT perform a GOLD MEDAL PERFORMANCE. END OF STORY.

[Pres Raygun]

The ISU MANDATED tiebreaker is the PRESENTATION score

This is the problem. North American thinking is that substance trumps style. If the performance is not perfect, then the artistic value is meaningless. Either European/Eastern thinking is opposite to this or they are just using it as a fudge factor for their corruption. BTW, I believe it is this difference, that makes the US dominant in the world, both economically and militarily.

The other problem with the scoring was the high technical marks given to the Russians. They clearly made 4 mistakes, that even causal spectators could plainly see. There should not have been ties in the first place.

[DallasGal]

Oh no!! Sorry on both accounts :(

Oh my heart is just breaking, if they would all do us the favor. BTW I'm not watching any of the Olys anymore. I was shocked and disheartened by what happened. However, I must say that Jamie and David have handled it with dignity. I know it's got to be hard.

[DJ88]

No kidding. Talk about bringing a knife to a gunfight....this is too stupid. It just goes to show how crooked the IOU is...and that's my point. And I'm sticking to it. ;-)

[CathyRyan]

Note to Canadians skates.

In the future to look more autistic...I mean artistic flap your arms around and occasionally look up at the ceiling like you are constipated.

[skateman]

And even in the case of that major mistake, a lesser skater would have fallen on his ass, but this Russian stayed 'ablade.'

Ablade, now thats a neat term.

[Petronski]

so Buttoutski

Too clever by half. Unless you are Jim Robinson, I think I'll stay.

[DJ88]

"It just goes to show how crooked the IOU is..." IOC,DJ, IOC....IOU'S are stupid, too....but the IOC is stupider...

[discostu]

I'm just throwing out how things work. If you'll check the history of the sport you'll see that it's rare to the point of almost never happening for a routine that has already won a medal to be awarded another medal, especially if it's being retreaded in one of the big ones. It's considered rude and insulting to the sport, the event and the judges (who very well might have judged the routine before, there really aren't that many judges) to use the same routine over and over. That's not just true in figure skating either, most of the judged sports have that unwritten rule.

[DJ88]

Stay. Talk to yourself. Have a nice day.

[mrustow]

I can't tell what he's saying. He can't speak English at all. But apparently, he's saying that all ice skating base are belong to us.

You sure? Or did he possibly say, "All you ice skate are belong to us"? Or, "All your medal are belong to us"?

[DJ88]

Thanks, DG...his aunt was very sick....94 yrs old and they just found the liver cancer last month..so it was very quick. She has been unconcious for the last 5 days, hopefully in NO PAIN...but let me tell ya...had she seen this, she would have been screaming just as loud as we are. ;-)

[Jaded]

If the tied judges were China and Poland, shouldn't we be throwing rocks and them and not the French guy or are the French free shots?

[discostu]

Well basically what you point out there (and pretty accurately I might add) is how the judges are trained to judge the "artistic merit". Part of judge training is a "mentoring" process where the new guy parallel judges with his teacher, he's not allowed to "graduate" until he scores the same way as his teacher. Basically they have a set of standards on how to "appreciate" the sport that they perpetuate through the ages.

Just another reason to come up with an objective scoring method.