FR LIVE EVENT-Olympic Scandal Press Conference..

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

[codebreaker]

Sandra Bezic with the commentary..

[Rain-maker]

Chinese judge's photo had substitute stand-in beauty photo instead.

Couldn't find here real pic.

Never liked Red China anyway. LOL

[mlo]

I love how YOUR ASSUMPTIONS are things we ALL KNOW. What I KNOW is that the Russians performed a harder routine that was more artistically pleasing. In case you didn't notice the Russians didn't fall on their butts either, came close once but kept cheek and ice seperate.

Seems to me you are making as many assumptions as anyone else.

What exactly was harder about the Russian routine? What was the difficulty rating of both routines?

The Canadians didn't even come close to falling on their butts, unlike, as you note, the Russians.

Yes, it's subjective, but when someone says the Russian routine was more artistically pleasing I can only conclude they don't know what they are looking at. There is no way that is true. None. On a subjective matter like this then polls do tell a story, and the polls are pretty clear. Most people are seeing something you didn't see.

[DallasGal]

Ok, I'm reading down the posts...I didn't find the Russians artistically pleasing, for Pete's sake, she couldn't smile and he had his mouth hanging open like he was sucking air. She is not a happy girl. They looked forced and it certainly didn't flow. I, however, know the Love Story story, and love means never having to say your sorry..aside from that, it doesn't matter that the Russians had a more difficult proggie, so what, he bobbled a landing and she was barely hanging on. /rant

[mlo]

With the rules as they are, considering BOTH the short and long programs the Russian's won fare and square. Anybody who doesn't like it just being obsessive.

Really? The rules permit judges to score higher for teams they like, or for political reasons? They allow them to swap scores with other judges? What was that judge's oath thing in the opening ceremony about then? These are the allegations here you know. You can't just assume it didn't happen.

[Pres Raygun]

Hey the rules are as the rules are.,

You mean there is a rule written down somewhere that you can't skate a previous program, or that you shouldn't wear gray, or you have to be a Russian to win gold? That last one seems plausible.

[is_is]

It is unprecedented from what i've heard for judges to approach reporters that way.....if there was 3 there were probably more who felt the same way.....1 judge hauls ass so as to not answer questions.....another says there was vote swappin' going on.....any DA could convict a case with the circumstantial evidence alone.....what do you need?....the guilty judges to say YES IT WAS RIGGED!!!???? Based on that i will go with DJ's assumption of why they looked dumb founded....

[bootless]

Wow - that Chinese judge is the scariest thing I've seen in a while. She got UGLIFIED!

[discostu]

That could very well be the case, but some would argue that that's what the artistic merit score is for, to insert those crashes. Say "I saw this routine from them 2 years ago" and given them diddly squat. I think the real source of that "rule" is to keep from getting the same routines performed over and over ad infinitum, that would really kill the sport when the announcers introduce the "defending champions who will perform the same routine they won with 4 years ago". But apparently nobody figured out a good way to put it in the rule book so it's just one of those understood concepts. Most of the judged sports where the contestants get some real time to work with (ie, not diving, but definitely the floor routine in gymnastics) have it. While I'm not a close follower of the judged sports I can honestly say that in 25 years of being a sports junky who'll watch anything if there's nothing else doing this is the first time I've heard of a retreaded award winner getting a medal. Because I am basically a nice person I credited that to the skill of the Canadians (ie they did it well enough that it deserved to medal inspite of it being a retread) rather than the weakness of the competition.

[americalost]

That would and will be absolutely true if a fix isn't proven. If there was a fix in the judging then there was a fix in the judging.

[Chief Inspector Clouseau]

Women's Hockey, Canada 7 Russia 0

That's just for technical merit. Considering that Canada's offensive strategy is a retread and the Russians' costumes are more colorful, Russia wins the artistic portion.

Final score: Russia 8.01 Canada 8.00. Sorry, Canucks...

[Jaded]

Didn't Nancy Kerrigan do something similar? And months later she was still b***ing about it. Ah, the lives of the privileged.

[discostu]

Actually I don't think Nancy Kerrigan medals without the Tonya Harding incident. Technically she was a very skilled skater, but that shark mentality of hers (cold dead eyes, and the way she would attack a move like it had insulted her, she never flowed into a move) really killed her artistic performance. If she doesn't get some noteriety and a little sympathy she's just another entry in a long list of American also rans in the sport.

Love the bra comment though. Especially the parnthetical.

[RightlySo]

Feel free to disagree with opinions on Free Republic, by all means!-- that's what this forum is all about, open discussion, especially regarding political issues.

But truly now, those rose colored glasses of yours have a liberal tint to them too, no?

[bootless]

I have to disagree about the overall impression of the Russian long program. Their short was outstanding. In the long, yes, they had very nice flow between the jumps and other elements - which is a BIG point with me in ballroom as well, my area of expertise.

However, the step-out of the initial side by side jump, as well has Elena hanging on to some of her throw landings by her toenails, as well as their general tightness do not, IMO, result in a gold medal performance, esp. when compared against a clean performance by the Canadians. They made no similar errors, and clearly skated the superior routine in the longs.

I didn't have a dog in this race before the comp. I was a huge fan of G&G, and don't carry a grudge against Russian teams. If they're better, they're better. In this case, they weren't. It's not the Russians' fault - they just skated their routine, and after that, it's out of their hands. Because of the intrusion of real life this skating season, I have also missed all the back stories about the teams. So, I went into this one with a clean slate.

Sale and Pelletier were in The Zone - the Russians weren't.

[Snowyman]

Wouldn't suprise me a bit although I would have thought the reason was the Russians skated backwards better,,or at least they seemed to do it more often.

[Pres Raygun]

Any more ??

Ya ,don't skate for Canada or the US and expect anything better than silver.

When you just skated the performance of you life and the crowd is applauding hysterically, don't show any emotion.

[Semper Paratus]

Nancy is a shark. She married her agent away from his wife of 20 years
and when she was in the Disney Parade she was snippy with Mickey.

[DJ88]

Yes....it seems as though the only two here who disagree is Dicostu and Petronski, so I would SAY the majority rules.

I don't even KNOW if the Canadians were skating 2 years ago, as I heard the other night that SHE was a waitress in a diner or a restuarant and HE was doing something else...they were not TOGETHER for very long was what I got from it so to say this was a "retread" program is BS.

I really don't care anymore...you think it was fixed?? So do I. And apparantly SO DO A LOT OF OTHER PEOPLE because if they didn't, this whole THING WOULDN'T BE OUT THERE. ;-)

[discostu]

I don't remember what the ratings were. I know during yesterday's coverage of the event everybody mentioned that the Russian's routine was more difficult. They were airborne more often that usually means it's more difficult.

Ah yes the court of public opinion. So Michael Jackson, Madonna and Brittney Spears are the greatest musicians ever. I mean they sell the most, clearly the "polls" have spoken. We'll just ignore the fact that their primary talent is in hiring good choreographers. They're the most popular so they must be artistically superior.

From where I sit the Canadian routine was ugly, monotonous and based on a crappy movie. Just making me hear that damn song again deserves great ridicule. Maybe most of the judges didn't like Love Story either.

[Jaded]

What was that judge's oath thing in the opening ceremony about then?

The same thing as a politician's.

People have been screaming the same thing for years. During the last olympics(or maybe the one before) there was the thing in ice dancing about the Americans were rated behind the Russians, I think it was Jenny Meno and Todd Sands. Anyhow, the commmentators went on and on and on about how the Russians touched for .0123 seconds longer that allowed and roll that tape ten or twenty more times yada yada yada. They finally interviewed Meno/Sands and really pushed them for a hateful comment about the judges and the pair REFUSED to take the bait because they had to compete the next time. It's just something to take our minds off of Enron.