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Thank you. Although given your screen name they're going to say your biased (I'm biased too, I think figure skating is silly). I really think if the sissy-boy doing play-by-play doesn't declare the Canadians' to have executed a "gold medal performance" before they were even finished we get no controversy here. Unfortunately even FReepers have a tendency to want to believe what they hear on TV (plus a strong distrust of authority figures) so the general assumption is that if the talking head and the judges disagree with eachother the talking head must be right.

I even forgot to mention the retread routine. I've known for 20 years that retreaded routines are a strict no-no in hte big competitions, the judges frown on it dramatically and consistently. For something as big as "The Olympics" they want something new and consider dragging out an old stand-by an insult to the event and the sport. The fact that they even medaled with a retread is a high compliment from the judges, usually they keep those out of the medals entirely.

I think you two miss the point. I personally think the Canadians were better. I can see how one might think the Russians were better. But in a case where the judging is fixed (and I'm making a big assumption that the press reports are correct), then we will never know for sure who truely won that competition.

Regardless of who you think won, I hope you can see that it will be disgraceful if this competition were fixed, and nothing is done about it.

Oh, so that's why the judges gave them higher scores in both technical and artistic merit? Right on, bro. You make as much sense as that guy who just had the PRESS CIRCUS.

If what you're saying is correct (and I highly doubt it) than here's what they were telling the audience: "Yes, they were better both technically and artistically than the Russians, but we're giving the Gold Medal to the Russians anyway." Your theory makes absolutely no sense at all. And for your information, I watched it live on TV, and I saw the judges faces, and they were NOT SHOCKED at the AUDIENCES reaction, Mr. Know It All. Did you even watch it?

The fact that they even medaled with a retread is a high compliment from the judges, usually they keep those out of the medals entirely.

OK, now I *KNOW* you didn't even watch the event. Had you watched, you would know that the pairs that finished 3rd and 4th are not fit to drive the Zamboni...even corrupt judges such as these had to put the Canadians and Russians 1-2.

But to imply the judges somehow did the Canadians a favor by giving them the silver is beyond ludicrous...

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.